Posted on April 12, 2007
BRANDON EICKEL
Junior Brandon Eickel was re-elected to serve a second term as the SGA student body president for the 2007-08 school year. Eickel, a double major in political science and communication studies, hopes the experience he gained this year will give him a lead into next year.
“I’m very excited particularly because I have the year of experience behind me now and I’ve been able to form relationships with the administration,” he said. “I feel I can get business done [next year].”
Eickel previously served as president of his freshman and sophomore class before taking on the position as SGA student body president this year.
“I want the SGA to be available to students in ways that we haven’t really been in the past,” he said. “We need to listen to student concerns and ideas, because that’s really why we’re here in the first place, and I feel like that’s something we’ve kind of steered away from.”
His platform focuses on monetary issues concerning students and methods to improve the environment. He aims to make a difference in the Harrisonburg community starting at JMU.
Annually, the SGA sponsors a day when students, faculty, staff and the administration go out into the community and do service for a full day; this event has always fallen on a weekend, but Eickel hopes to move it to a weekday in order to bring the campus together in service.
“Everyone can go into the community and do services for a day,” he said. “We would really make an impact on other people’s lives outside the JMU bubble.”
Eickel is excited to serve the student body during the Centennial Celebration.
“It’s JMU’s centennial year next year, so I feel very honored and privileged to be leading the university, as far as the SGA, into the next century,” he said.
STACY FULLER
Junior Stacy Fuller was elected a second term by the student body to fulfill the position of student representative to the Board of Visitors for the 2007-08 school year. Approximately 3,000 students voted in last week’s elections: one-fifth of the student body.
“It’s a position of great responsibility and I’m grateful people know my work ethic and trust me enough to represent them well,” said Fuller. “If I’m not, then I hope they whip me into shape.”
On-campus parking reform and revamping the general education program are two of Fuller’s aspirations next year.
“I was sitting in traffic in the parking garage when I was thinking, what can I do to fix this? My idea was to install car counters,” she said. “I talked to management about it and apparently there are some JMU graduates who have a company where they provide car counters.”
JMU will be working with the alumni next year in order to hopefully attain the counters to relieve congestion in on-campus parking garages, Fuller said.
Fuller’s platform focuses on greater activism on campus through garnering more student involvement on campus. One avenue she will be taking is attempting to get television screens installed in various buildings and dining halls around campus that will provide students with daily news.
“The former student representative to the BOV made this into a position of activism, and I’m trying to follow in her footsteps,” Fuller said. “My position is a liaison between the students and the leaders on campus who make decisions.”
Fuller said student apathy towards voting for their campus leaders reflects on SGA itself.
“Voter turnout is a huge reflection on how effective students think you are in the first place,” she said. “If you give them something to be concerned about people will come to the polls. What I’ve come to learn is that it’s our responsibility to reach out to the student body and to engage people all year round, not just during elections.”
