As their terms begin, Associated Student Body leaders are preparing in earnest to govern and deliver for the student body this fall semester. The new school year allows the newly elected leaders to address various issues that face students from positions of increased influence.
ASB President Jack Jones, previously the vice president, finds himself at the helm of an organization that champions “prioritizing students’ interests and needs” and committing itself to “supporting each and every single student to be prepared for the next season of life,” according to the ASB website.
“Overarchingly, our goal is, and always has been, to enhance the student experience in every possible way,” Jones said.
Game day experience
The game day experience is a key focus for ASB this year.
On Aug. 21, ASB announced select stadium concessions will be discounted by 50% for students, non-alcoholic beer options will be introduced, cooling stations will be added near free water stations at the stadium and portable phone chargers will be available for rent at $5 per hour at various locations including the Square.
“We are incredibly excited to announce this partnership,” Jones said in the statement. “I think all of the improvements lead to a safer and more enjoyable game day experience for students. We can’t thank the team over at Ole Miss Athletics enough for all their hard work and their willingness to hear our concerns.”
Last season, Head Coach Lane Kiffin expressed disappointment in much of the student section’s early departure from the Sept. 9 home game against Middle Tennessee State University. For Jones, student section retention throughout the games remains key.
“We talked about some of the reasons that students leave games early and what we can do to prevent that moving forward,” Jones said.
Mental health awareness
Another key focus for Jones’ administration is promoting mental health awareness.
“There’s a lot of awareness about mental health, which is an issue not only on our campus but across the country for people our age. What we really have isolated as an issue here is students who are not aware of the resources that are available to them for mental health,” Jones said. “People may know that there’s a counseling center, but they may not know where the counseling center is, or how easy it is or where to book an appointment.”
Jones spoke about a social media campaign promoting these resources but also elevating a specific educational resource: mental health first aid training.
“The university offers a mental health first aid training, and it’s a great training,” Jones said. “The issue is that it’s fairly lengthy and inaccessible to most students for that reason. So, we’ve had an issue in the past of the university maybe offering it once a month for free, but it’s six hours — and six hours is a long time.”
Jones, however, does see the merits of the lengthy training and believes that increasing its accessibility will allow students to more readily train other students, benefitting the student body.
“If you and I can get trained in mental health first aid, that’s a lot more accessible to students because we can offer it to a lot more students, right?” Jones said. “The more trainers that you have, the more opportunities there are to teach mental health first aid. So, we’ve been partnering with IFC, Panhellenic and NPHC to try to expand the number of their members who are trained in that, trying to get more leadership within those Greek organizations trained in mental health first aid.”
Jones also hopes to train registered student organization leaders in mental health first aid, promoting the visibility of mental health resources and care.
“For our students who are leaders in organizations who may interact with a number of students on a daily basis, who may interact with students who are going through something,” Jones said. “We certainly think that people like that need to get mental health first aid training. We’re going to get more students not just trained but trained in training, so that more students can get trained.”
Accessible transportation
Making transportation more accessible to students remains a priority, as well.
“People continue to have issues with the bus system,” Jones said. “People continue to pay fairly ridiculous prices at times for Uber or Lyft. (We’re) seeing what creative partnerships we can create on the rideshare side to try to alleviate some of those issues, what we can do with the bus system for improvements and working on ways that we can improve the app.”
How will ASB reach their goals?
ASB will achieve the president’s agenda not just through the utilization of the executive branch but through the senate, as well. Vice President Walker Jacklin explains that the inner workings of the senate largely revolve around committees, much like the United States Congress.
“With how our branch is set up, senators are able to write and bring a wide array of legislation to their committees to be voted on to come to the senate floor,” Jacklin said. “That being said, there are several pieces that will be prepared to come to the floor this September. Many proposed changes have come forth and we are excited to hear senators’ voices when many of these ideas are brought to the floor.”
Jacklin says that though many initial changes pertain to ASB internal affairs like updating their code and constitution, there is more to come on the president’s agenda.
“In terms of the senate’s work for this upcoming fall, we are excited for real, tangible changes to be released in the coming weeks,” Jacklin said. “With the expansion of the legislative council that we implemented this past April, we now have a strong, efficient plan in place for the legislative branch, so our branch will facilitate direct impacts for students in the most effective manner possible. This way, symbolic pieces of legislation are minimized and students can rely on their elected senators to be working on projects and legislation that have effective changes.”
The ASB Senate passes three types of legislation. Bills are binding laws that pertain specifically to the internal affairs of the ASB, changing the code or constitution. Proclamations are statements made by the Senate, either clarifying a belief or congratulating an event or person. Resolutions are requests made by the Senate to the university administration that, while non-binding, must be signed as seen by the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Dean of Students.
“As a former vice president, I would say that resolutions are fulfilled almost all the time,” Jones said. “Our goal with our senators is that hopefully conversations are encouraged with administrators, before ever passing resolutions through the student senate.”
President Pro Tempore of the Senate and former Chair of the Housing Committee Wesley Templet looks forward to the upcoming legislative session.
“Under Vice President Jacklin and my leadership together, we both hope to see projects that are truly coming back to benefit students and that students can actually see and feel,” Templet said. “We hope to have a lot of very meaningful pieces of legislation this year in all areas of campus life, from housing to athletics to infrastructure to academics and everything else in between.”
While not everything the ASB Senate discusses becomes legislation, Templet is focused on promoting a culture of productivity.
“The power of the senate is to bring forth plans and projects to university administration about how to better student and campus life,” Templet said. “Often, this comes in the form of legislation, which is voted on by the entire senate body — currently 52 senators. These votes are public record and are recorded every meeting so that senators can be held accountable by their constituents. There are also many times when work done by senators does not manifest into pieces of legislation but instead are products of conversations and work done between senators, other ASB members, administration and community partners.”
Comments from current ASB committee leaders were sought by The Daily Mississippian, but none responded.
