Issue date: 3/26/07 Section: News

Photos by Brad Honer, Stephen Fogg, Daniel Bates, Matthew Youngblood and Whitney Martin - THE BATTALION

JAKE BATHMAN - JUNIOR POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: The theme of my platform and my entire campaign is that I have the most experience with the issues. I've been working for the past year in Student Senate, as the student services chair. What my committee is focused on is Transportation Services, Dining Services, basketball ticket pulling and the future of campus. So those are the main things that I have good ideas for. These aren't things that I'm telling students I want to do. These are things that I'm already working on and that I'm going to continue on as student body president.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: The most important issue this year, I think for myself and for the campus, is diversity promotion. There's been a lot of talk this year about diversity on this campus. I think it needs to become more a part of our tradition between the classes and the generations, and not just a hot topic of debate.

DEREK DEVINE - JUNIOR MARKETING MAJOR

PLATFORM: Efficiency, unity, diversity and spirit. Dr. Gates created a great initiative here...shared governance where student, faculty and administration got to work together to make decisions. With a new president coming in the next six to nine months, it is vital that next year's student body president is able to keep the student voice what it has been in the past…create a tradition of listening to the students. If student government is supposed to be serving the students, it needs to be connected to the student body. In efficiency, we want to impact things like the bus routes. We could change Transportation Services from doing things with numbers to colors.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: The most important issue is the unity that needs to take place on this campus. I think if you can form relationships with different leaders…you can revolutionize this place.

BRIAN FOLEY - SENIOR POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: Traditions: that can be expressed by my idea, Aggie Class (classes to reinforce Aggie traditions). Finance or saving money: I have two tangible ways that we save money. One is for something I call the student audit board, and the other is to increase the textbook adoption rate. The final one is an information technology tenet, and the first big area is to get campus wireless access. Aggie Class…is going to be the force that changes this campus forever. You can come to Kyle Field, say before Yell Practice and have a famous Aggie like Rick Perry come and talk to you about the tradition of Bonfire…you could talk about Howdy, have the media center make great videos for the jumbo screen.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: The most important is seeing Aggie Class come to life. It's going to reinforce traditions at this school in a way that you haven't seen before.

DYER HILL - SENIOR CONSTRUCTION SCIENCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: The things I would like to focus on is, of course, the communication between students. That needs to start with the communication between the student body president and the new president. The SBP needs to be the chief advocate and chief educator to the new president.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: It's communication - and it's so broad - but it's communication not only between the students and administration, but also with groups on campus. I feel there are a lot of bridges that should be built. Student Government needs to be a resource.

CONNOR PROCHASKA - SENIOR POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: Texas A&M is one of the few, if only, universities that you come to and you don't just become a smart person - you become a good person. As student body president, I want to do two things. I can voice the students' opinion to the administration, and I want to make sure that SGA maintains its entire focus on enhancing the Aggie experience for every single member of this University. I want to make sure that every person across the world that wants to come to Texas A&M can, and can become a great Aggie.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: SGA's goal is to enhance the Aggie experience, and to be there to serve the student body. I want to make sure that we maintain that focus. I don't believe there's a better person out there to orientate a new president of the University than myself. I've seen more, done more and been around more Aggie life I think than any other candidate out there.

JED PURCELL - SENIOR CONSTRUCTION SCIENCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: I've found that there is an information communication breakdown between the student body and its elected officials. I've been going to all the Student Senate meetings, all the SGA meetings and SLG meetings for the past year. In going to those, I've realized that no students attend. That's a huge problem. (The student body) doesn't know what's going on. They don't know what bills are being passed. There's no information communication between the elected officials and the student body.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: Fixing the information communication. I believe that would in turn boost participation, which in turn would generate better ideas. You make better ideas in a (large) group than in a small group of people. I think that would move Texas A&M forward as a whole.

KYLE SCHIELACK - SENIOR FINANCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: My platform revolves around three main areas, the first being diversity. If we're going to continue to grow and be that Vision 2020, we need to at least expand our knowledge of why diversity is important. My second (area of focus) is unity and traditions. To unify student activities, I'd like to start some form of council that would have representatives from the organizations to unify them, co-program and help each other out.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: Diversity. I graduated with 100 students, mainly Caucasian, and then I came to Texas A&M, and there's 45,000 students from all over the world. Freshman year it was kind of a culture shock, but then I got to work with people from other cultures. That's kind of where my heart and passion has grown at A&M.

BEN WILLIAMS - SENIOR FINANCE MAJOR

PLATFORM: We have a new president that's going to be coming in the next six months or so. It will be the sole job of the student body president to teach, to communicate the Aggie values to him. Aggie Athletics is going to be very important now that we are a Sweet Sixteen basketball team. We have to find a way so more students are able to go to games. On-campus living is definitely a big issue for me. Aggies deserve the best, they deserve to be able to live in the best conditions, they deserve to be able to have academics integrated into their residence halls.
MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE: It is the job of the student body president to embody everything that it means to be an Aggie. We have a lot of amazing traditions on this campus, and (the SBP) has to know why we do that.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools