When the results of the SGA presidential race were announced there were screams to be heard.
T.J. Mitchell will be the new SGA president, Chris Carroll was elected the vice president and Megan Fuller was awarded the secretary seat by the student body.
Mitchell hopes to increase student involvement on campus and wants better communication between students and the SGA. “We have to be visible,” he said.
He also hopes to work with administration on issues such as the parking fee and wants to strive for a partial repeal on the smoking ban. He hopes a compromise will be designated smoking areas on campus.
“We hope we can avoid the parking garage,” Mitchell said. “What we would like to see done is have a current expansion of the parking on campus, I’ve been part of a committee that’s been looking at different scenarios to do that.”
Some of the options for alleviating the parking situation have been re-evaluating the times classes are offered, expanding the Bucshot routes, offering more classes at the Kingsport campus as well as offering more classes online, all in an effort to reduce traffic on the main campus, according to Mitchell.
Mitchell wants to make sure there are “quality members” on the SGA senate.
“We want to work with the Initiative for Clean Energy, especially now since the green fee has passed there’s about $130,000 to be used by the students,” he said.
The green fee will be organized similarly to the Buc Fund runs. The new president is looking to put the application for Buc Fund online.
“We want to stress how important the Buc Fund is as well,” said Carroll. “We want to stress how important Buc Fund is for bringing speakers to campus.”
As vice president, Carroll will preside over the Senate.
“I’m also on committees . covering a wide spectrum of student interests, something I want to make more visible,” said Carroll. “One of the things I want to do as vice president is to ask the tough questions of the administration while working with them, and also increasing visibility of these committees because they really control a lot of our lives here at ETSU.”
A lot of what the members of the executive board will be doing is serving on committees, according to Mitchell.
“We want to be really open to the student body,” said Fuller. “One thing I want to do is to put my notes in the student paper, revamp the Web site and put the minutes on it and put what senators voted for.”
One of their main concerns is getting the senator and cabinet member’s pictures out for the student body to see.
“They have more power than we do, they are the legislative branch of the government,” said Mitchell.
“And the key to keeping that interest is retention,” said Carroll. “One thing that’s been a problem is that a lot of senators come on board and in six months they’re gone.”
When a senator leaves his or her post, a new one is appointed by the president of SGA.
According to Mitchell, senators leaving has been “a bit more drastic” as far as numbers go.
“That sense of cohesiveness comes from the top,” said Carroll.
Carroll says that through the campaign they waged the past few weeks they found that they worked well together, and hopes that will continue through the next year.
Mitchell, Carroll and Fuller spent around $300 to $400 on their campaign this year. “We want to say thank you very much, and to feel free, everybody, to contact us,” said Mitchell.
The SGA offices are located in the SORC, and they will keep regular office hours in the fall.

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