Student Government President Jacqueline Keck is approaching a bittersweet end to her historic term as Auburn’s third woman president.
Promises were made when she campaigned for the position, and changes have come to campus since Keck was elected. Here’s what Keck and her cabinet said they would make happen for students and what actually came to be.
Dining
Carrying on with former President Jesse Westerhouse’s goal, Keck worked with her cabinet and Tiger Dining to change the overall experience of dining. The Dining Task Force, championed by Westerhouse in 2015–2016, focused on the needs and wants of students.
The research was presented to Director of Dining Services Glenn Loughridge and the rest of the dining coalition. Just a week ago, a new contract with Aramark, internationally known food provider, rolled out.
Keck said the main goal of the task force was to provide students with a dining hall experience, rather than a retail-based system. Their goal will be accomplished with the renovation of Foy Union and other food halls around campus.
“Everything happened that we wanted to happen, and that is unheard of,” Keck said. “I can’t attribute that all to [SGA] but also to our campus partners.”
With the new contract, Keck said there will be more options for those with dietary needs or restrictions, a variety of meal plans including swipes for meals and more affordable options.
Keck said Aramark will be providing more options for game-day eating for students and will publish their nutrition facts, which were two highly requested changes in the Dining Task Force research.
“I think overall this is going to be a massive change and students are going to come back in the fall and say, ‘Holy cow, this is so different,’” Keck said. “They will say it in a great way.”
Auburn Intern Initiative
Mentioned in her first interview with The Auburn Plainsman, Keck’s work with the Auburn Intern Initiative has progressed from being under the College of Liberal Arts to the Career Center taking it on. Keck said this seems like a small step, but the program is now open to all majors.
The Auburn Intern Initiative is a program that places students with a host family in Washington, D.C., usually Auburn alumni, to relieve the costly prices of interning in a bustling city.
“In the future years, you will see it expand to more cities,” Keck said. “It’s a gradual progress.”
Keck said she believes and hopes SGA will continue to support it after her time comes to an end.
Rebranding of SGA
Keck said it was crucial for SGA to create a look that went hand-in-hand with their mission and made students want to attend events, get involved and stay up-to-date on what was changing on campus.
Keck said thanks to Jennings Bowden, executive vice president of communications and marketing, SGA has a branding guide that has helped generate more views on the SGA pages.
“When we share what we have done on social media it looks as if it is something you want to be a part of and it’s exciting to be there,” Keck said. “Our promotion has become not something we have to do, but something we are really excited to do.”
Through rebranding, Keck said SGA became more approachable to students.
Student Ticketing
The student ticketing changes at the start of Keck’s term included a penalty system, a ticket pool and the inability to transfer tickets to other students. All of the changes and the pool can be reached through the ticketing system set up during Keck’s term.
The penalty points system became a hot-button issue for debate.
The process awards points to students who miss football games without giving their tickets to the student pool to be used by those who may not have a ticket.
In response to the grievances, The Student Ticketing Appeals Committee was formed to determine if appeals to have these points revoked are valid.
Keck said once there were more grievances toward the allotment of tickets, her team put the decision to a vote. Students voted for the credit hour and loyalty-based ticketing system. Those with the least penalty points and the most credit hours will receive their tickets first and so on.
“That’s been our way of thinking, you tell us what your grievances are and we will put it to a vote,” Keck said. “We have nothing to hide.”
Parking
Keck said they are unable to build a parking deck at the moment, but Parking Services with the help of her executive team has been working to make small things happen along the way.
Parking Services rolled out a new parking app that lets students know where there are parking spaces on campus, which was an initiative of the SGA.
“We see changes made in little areas that are helping the overall system get better gradually,” Keck said.
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