Blitz Week
The Student Government Association will organize a week for constituents to gain a better knowledge of the student government. Blitz Week will be the week before the nomination convention and will include:
• Q-and-A session with the executive board
• Traveling white board for suggestions and questions
• Surveys to give input and ideas
• Promotional items
• SGA vice president pleased with executive board’s previous semester
• Blitz Week aims to increase awareness and participation in student government
• Changes could be made to the election code after issues arose last year
Unexpected challenges categorized the first semester of activity for the Student Government Association after the former president’s remarks led to his resignation and a restructuring of the executive board.
“Given the different events that happened in the beginning of the school year, I felt like the executive board did extremely well carrying on and rolling with the punches,” Alyssa France, SGA vice president, said.
The executive board made steps toward its platform points with events including Countdown 2 Kickoff for campus pride, two executive board spaghetti dinners for intercampus relationships and bridging the gap between the Muncie and Ball State communities with the creation of a Student Ambassadors program in Muncie.
SGA also hosted the first Student Government Coalition Conference, bringing together students from other universities to discuss student government strategies.
France said moving forward, one of the executive board’s main priorities during Spring Semester will be the creation of the Blue Light App, a campaign promise made to increase safety on campus.
Other priorities include working with transportation and hosting an event with alumni who were former student leaders, France said.
In addition to election season, which normally dominates the second semester for SGA, this spring will include a new, week-long SGA initiative called Blitz Week. It will encourage interaction with constituents that is not framed around SGA elections.
The week will feature a Q-and-A event with the executive board, a traveling white board, surveys and promotional items.
Jack Hesser, president pro tempore, and Jamison Turner, a student senator, are organizing the week, which will take place the week before nomination convention.
Hesser said he hopes the week rallies the student body around the importance of SGA just before election season.
“Slates generally face an uphill battle trying to motivate students to vote in the slate election, and thus half of the election season is spent [explaining SGA],” he said. “Blitz Week will hopefully take some of the slack off of the slates running and allow each slate to, right off the bat, state what makes them unique.”
Blitz Week is not meant as a campaigning opportunity, and Hesser stressed it will not be used for early campaigning.
“SGA cares about the student body, and we believe that the various organizations around campus should not only see its executive board or the senators during the election season,” he said.
In response to complaints during the past election season, changes will likely be made to the SGA elections code this semester.
Several factors made last year’s election controversial. Concerns were voiced about the need for standardized fines for campaign violations and limited campaign tactics, like carrying around iPads and asking students to vote with them. A former president pro tempore of SGA said he was behind a Twitter account posting offensive tweets regarding the election.
Chloe Anagnos, SGA president, said she has worked with the Rules and Constitutions Committee and adviser Jennifer Jones-Hall on revisions, which will be introduced to the senate in the next month or two.
“[Proposed changes] will focus on making the rules more concrete and easier to understand for all parties involved in the elections process,” Anagnos said.
The senate must approve changes to the code, and changes must be in place before nomination convention in the spring.
Anagnos said the upcoming changes will follow in the footsteps of changes that were made to the code during the last school year.
“Normally, there are one or two small changes along with grammar fixes and format adjustments,” she said. “However, last year, it was completely overhauled, and we are reviewing the changes that were made last year under the last executive board.”
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