Students are beginning to move in, and Auburn University’s Student Government Association has been hard at work the whole summer trying to get a plan set for the fall.
Vice President Justin Smith and Chief of Staff Samantha Moore are excited for the semester to come. They are focused on getting students on-campus involved and getting people to experience the Auburn Family.
The SGA has been working on a new ticketing system for football season. They are focused on what will be easiest for students.
“Something I am excited for next year is how game days will work,” Smith said.
Moore said the ticketing system will be fairly different from the past, but now SGA has developed a website specifically for ticketing to make the process more straightforward.
“I think it will be much easier than last year,” Smith said.
This new system is more convenient for students and makes it easier for more students to attend more games. The SGA works with Miss Auburn University every year, a program they help put on.
“Our last Miss AU did big things,” Smith said. “I believe she came in fourth last year at the Miss Alabama pageant.”
Students are encouraged to find an SGA member on campus during the first week of classes to ask questions. The team will be wearing “Ask me” shirts.
“It is for any student,” Moore said. “The purpose is to make people feel welcome from the first day.”
Moore and Smith said they want to focus on students’ success by reducing the price of textbooks and offering elements of professionalism through an on-campus clothing closet. Smith said students can donate their professional wear for other students to rent out for interviews and other formal events.
“The Clothing Closet has been something the SGA is looking into,” Moore said. “It started with the Miss Auburn platform, and then we have started to take it on and look at what other schools have done to benchmark our progress.”
Smith and Moore were pleased with the progress the student Senate has made. With the Syllabus Bank bill being passed last year, they are hoping to take key steps to help students save time.
“Finally, now that all bugs have been worked out of the Syllabus Bank, it is up and running online,” Moore said. “Teachers can easily post their syllabi now, and hopefully we will see that grow.”
“We have a bill coming through on student grievances,” Smith said. “It would be expanding the ability of a student to have representation when they have a grievance to a faculty member. The faculty members can have representation now and students don’t, and that would be something this bill will help fix.”
The SGA has been and is continuing to work hard for the students, Smith said.
“Going into the fall and the next year in general, we plan to keep doing what we know we are capable of doing and helping students,” Smith said. “We can’t be complacent; we need to always be moving forward. There is always something that can be done, and that’s the hard part. The easy part is finding what needs to be done, and the hard part is actually doing it. That’s what we will be working hard to do this year.”
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