It was a long, stressful week, but Steven Jackson wasn’t done yet. He sat in the Grambling Hall Auditorium, in sweltering heat, waiting, hoping. As the results were read, he could finally breathe a bit.
“I was a little nervous,” he said.
Jackson’s celebration of his victory was short-lived, as he immediately had to begin the preparation of his upcoming term as SGA President.
It’s a smooth transition for Jackson, as he is the current SGA vice president, but he’s concerned about getting the newly elected officers ready.
“It’s hard to get all the new elected officers together so the old officers can start training the new officers,” he said. “It’s starting to get overwhelming, since we took the break right after election. We have finals about to come up.”
Despite that stress, Jackson is excited, meeting with administrators all over campus.
“Right now, today, I’m going to the technology community to present a proposal to start lending graphing calculators to math and science students,” he said Wednesday. “Also, in that proposal, we are proposing an e-book program where you can go check out e-books from the library.”
While the SGA does focus on some student activities and luxuries, such as the recently opened game room, Jackson hopes to help the SGA focus on the academic side and some restoration projects.
“If we can have a state-of-the-art game room, brand new movie theatre, invest in having a coronation and pageants, we need to look into investing into the library and restoring the park,” he said.
Jackson said the SGA plans to help increase the amount of security on campus. The SGA will also be working to restore the Quad area, located in front of T.H. Harris Auditorium.
Jackson also wanted to see improvements to the Graduate and Career Fair, one of his main issues he addressed during his campaign. He wants to implement a program where the SGA would waive the booth fee and possibly cover some of the travel expenses.
“We’re trying to give them incentives to get here,” he said. “More companies would probably consider adding us to their schedule.”
In the process of trying to move forward with his plans and ideas, Jackson said that he has already stepped on a few toes, making a few enemies. He also said that he upcoming budget could bring more.
“I’m going to make some enemies with this budget,” he said. “The budget that I do this year is going to be so different.”
Jackson said each class president would have to submit a program of work, stating what projects will be done and how much they will cost. From there, the SGA budget will be built around the programs that will have the greatest impact on the campus and help the students.
Another area Jackson is working on now is planning his Cabinet. Jackson said that he has not finished interviewing applicants for his Cabinet, and would have everything done during the summer.
“We’ll take the summer to make sure we get everything organized,” he said. “When the Fall gets here, we’ll be ready.”