Jason Rothfarb is a junior majoring in political science from Johns Creek, Georgia. He is running unopposed for the SGA executive vice president (EVP) position.

Q: How did you originally get involved with SGA? Or, if you’re not currently involved, what made you want to get involved?

A: I got involved with SGA as a senator for the College of Arts and Sciences. That’s the position I was in two years ago, and after my term ended, I decided to run for vice president for student affairs. I believe that is what fit my position the most and fit what I did in the Senate to represent arts and sciences. I had to cater to the student affairs aspect of campus, so that’s why I ran for the vice president of student affairs.

Q: What made you want to run for this position?

A: There are two big reasons I wanted to run for Executive Vice President. The first one is I get to serve as a mentor for others. The Executive Vice President’s biggest role is First Year Council, and that’s something that I’m really looking forward to if elected next year, because I loved being able to mentor younger people and giving them the same experience that I got in the Student Government Association. 

So, First Year Council is a program for freshmen, and I think it’s going to be really cool and unique for me to be able to help them accomplish their goals. Also, I think it’s going to be great because I have a lot of experience with SGA as well as with faculty and administration, so I can help all the senators and other vice presidents accomplish what they want to in student government. So, I think a mentorship role is the biggest part that I look forward to on why I wanted to run, because I think I would really excel in that situation, and then also just being there for whoever is the elected president I think is a job that can really fit me because it also gives me time to focus on what I started as the vice president for student affairs, so I look forward to continuing those goals and initiatives if elected. 

Q: What makes you the best choice for this office?

A: I think I’m the best choice because of my track record. If you look at everything that I’ve done within the SGA, I’ve accomplished all of my platform points, and I’ve gone beyond that as well. So, just a few of my accomplishments over the course of last year, I created a student rewards program where we worked with several restaurants in Tuscaloosa to create a rewards program for students that make the dean’s and president’s lists. That’s something that as EVP next year I can expand upon and create more for students. We had 2,000 students stop and pick up their rewards cards, which is a tremendous outreach for us, and I believe being in that role where I can expand upon these programs will be very beneficial. 

Q: What’s the biggest problem you see on campus?

A: I think the biggest problem has to do with communication and transparency. A lot of people don’t know what SGA has to offer, and going back to the student reward program, we reached around 2,000 people for this program, and that’s something that has not necessarily been done to that level of reaching out to others, so it was very cool to see so many people hearing about SGA and what we have to offer and coming into the office and talking to us talking about how they can get involved.

I also hear that a lot of people don’t necessarily know what programs and what events SGA is putting on, so I think a way to improve that is to work more with the other SOURCE organizations and sort of partner with them so that when we have programs, they can share our information, and then when they have programs, we can share theirs. 

Q: What do you hope to change?

A: Going off of what the biggest problem is, I think that’s what I hope to change. I hope to improve the President’s Council, which is an event where the SGA executive board talks with all of the SOURCE-registered organizations’ presidents, and unfortunately, this is not promoted as well as it should be, and I think that we need to get the word out more to SOURCE-registered organizations’ presidents so that they can hear what SGA is doing at the President’s Council and we can listen to them. 

This year, Caitlyn McTier did a great job of organizing it and making sure that everyone’s voices were heard, and I think that building off what she did last year would be very great to improve just the SOURCE organizations being able to come and speak to us. It helps us have a better understanding of what’s going around on campus and what we can do to make it better. 

Q: What’s one last thing you want voters to know about you?

A: I want voters to know I’m very personable. I’ve met so many people around the Capstone, and that’s been my favorite part of college – just meeting people from such diverse and different backgrounds than myself. I think that SGA creates a stigma that we can be intimidating or that we’re not nice, you don’t want to come talk to people in student government, but that’s the complete opposite, and we want to get out. We want to shake hands with students. We’re here to represent the students, and I think that I will be one of those people that will do a great job of representing the students. Come shake my hand; I would love to talk to you.