The position of vice president of student affairs within the SGA entails handling all issues related to students and improving their experience at the University. Any candidate who wishes to successfully fulfill this role should be connected to students from all corners of campus and possess both the desire and work ethic to create a positive campus experience for them. Clay Martinson is a competent candidate who clearly cares deeply about improving student experience, though his ambitious platform needs more specifics if he is to succeed in its implementation. 

Martinson’s platform is a multifaceted plan to improve many separate areas of student experience. He wants to create an incentive system for attendance of non-football sporting events and ensure free soda refills in Bryant-Denny stadium. He wants to find a way to allow students to work off parking ticket fines with community service hours. He wishes to expand upon and improve programming for It’s On Us week to raise awareness surrounding sexual assault. He also wants to market and expand the free legal services available to UA students through the law school. 

The platform point that he seems most passionate about, one that this Editorial Board truly hopes to see him accomplish, is creating a scholarship fund through the SGA where students can apply for funds specifically for extracurricular activities like honors societies, Greek life, and intramural sports, ensuring that all students can have fulfilling and well-rounded college experiences. 

Though all of these ideas could significantly increase quality of student life on campus, they are also clearly ideas that will require a great deal of planning, organization, and hours put towards execution. Martinson lacked specific plans in terms of implementing many of these ideas, but this Editorial Board believes he has the competency and motivation to see through many of his main platform points when he is almost certainly elected.