With no opposition Jaret Hubbell, psychology senior from Thibodaux, and Jana Stewart, secondary education junior from Houma, were named president and vice president of the Student Government Association (SGA) for the 2003-2004 school year.
Both Hubbell and Stewart felt that not having an opponent saved them the stress of having to campaign and could better concentrate on their job as an SGA officer.
“I am excited about running unopposed, I can now start to figure out what I am going to do as vice president. Of course I would rather an election because that is the democratic process at work,” Stewart said.
However Hubbell and Stewart both felt that having an election would have given the student body an opportunity to become familiar with them. Usually for an SGA election, candidates are given radio time, a forum is held in the student union to talk about platforms and also publicity from The Nicholls Worth.
“I will still run a campaign, even if it means walking around campus for an hour to greet people. My campaign will be on going till the end of next year. I will have articles run through The Nicholls Worth and advertisement through KNSU. My drive is to get students involved,” said Hubbell.
Alcie Maxwell’s main platform for 2002 was his diversity plan, however Hubbell’s main platform will join with the new SGA slogan Hearing Every Voices.
This new slogan is about gaining student involvement, working with student programming and organizing the student body to bring up the morale of the University.
The first issue new vice president Stewart plans to address is online voting as an alternative to students during elections. According to Stewart online voting at other universities has proven effective and has raised student participation in elections by ten percent. Stewart plans to work on getting online elections during the summer session and have them in place in time for Homecoming elections.
Hubbell and Stewart said there will be a lot of give and take in their relationship as president and vice president. They said in the end they will do their own thing to a point because they cannot realistically take on everything individually. Ideas will be shared, and they will attempt to address anything that is presented before them. Hubbell and Stewart agree, “Nothing is impossible.”
One of the new things Hubbell and Stewart want to put into effect for 2003 is the establishment of a House of Representatives within the SGA. This would mean that every organization recognized by the Office of Student Life would have one seat in the SGA.
“For the year 2003 I see a more full senate with more members, involvement and concern for students. The SGA will be full of people entering committees who will address issues and act as a voice for the students,” Stewart said.
“In 2003 it is not so much filling Alcie’s shoes as a president, but finding what worked for him and applying it to me because every year is different. It is almost as if Alcie likes loafers and I prefer tennis shoes. However Alcie has set a good example for me and I am up for the challenge of succeeding him,” said Hubbell.
For the fall of 2003 Hubbell and Stewart encourage students who are interested in the SGA to fill out an application now. There are spaces available now and the SGA will need to be able to fill empty senate seats. Both Hubbell and Stewart look forward to seeing new faces on the SGA committees and hearing new ideas.