Making a difference

As part of their application for student body president,candidates have been allowed to write commentaries detailing theirplatforms. Voting will run from Feb. 25 to Feb. 26.

Ever since I first stepped foot on the SMU campus as a firstyear, I have wanted to make a difference. I have dedicated a largepart of my time here trying to make this university an even betterplace than it already is by giving back to the school that hasgiven so much to me and by representing my fellow students.

Last year, you elected me student body vice president, and ithas been my honor and privilege to dedicate my time, experience,and passion towards serving the university I love and the studentsI respect. As student body vice president, I have had directoversight of the SMU Student Senate.

This included meeting every other week with each Student Senatorand every week with the Student Senate Officers. In addition, Ihelped draft legislation, sent legislation out to theadministration after it was passed, helped plan the Let’sTalk: Affirmative Action at SMU Forum, served on the Student SenateExecutive Committee, worked closely with the other Student Bodyofficers, and had the opportunity to develop working relationshipswith members of the SMU administration. Most recently, I had thehonor to co-chair the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the renovation ofthe Dedman Center for Lifetime Sports.

I have truly loved serving as your vice president, and I wouldappreciate the honor of continuing to represent the students of SMUas student body president.

If elected, there are many issues that I would like to work on.For example, I want to work with the SMU admissions office to helprecruit and retain a more diverse SMU student body. In order to dothis, I plan on first working to make SMU a more inclusiveenvironment for our entire student body by showing moreinstitutional support for our multicultural student groups and theprograms they put on.

Additionally, I want to work to make SMU more welcoming totransfer and international students by continuing to improve ourorientation programs, providing additional scholarships, andoffering opportunities for these students to get involved andparticipate in student activities.

I would also like to work on improving campus safety. Many ofyou may remember a report in The Daily Campus last semester about agirl being sexually assaulted in the Airline Parking Garage.Shortly after this happened, I went on a police ride with anofficer from the SMU Police Department. I was pleased to learn thatour police Department had stationed an officer in the AirlineGarage and another one outside of the library, who was available togive students a ride back to the residence halls during eveninghours. I was greatly impressed by these actions; however, they werereactive measures.

I want to work to develop stronger relationships with the SMUPolice Department and encourage the police to use both reactive andproactive measures in preventing crime on campus. I also want toraise awareness of the safety programs and measures we already haveon campus, such as the blue lights, the police escort service, andthe availability of self-defense classes.

Moreover, I would like to continue my efforts to increase andindex student scholarships at SMU. I am very fortunate to be ascholarship student at SMU. Indeed, I might not be here if it werenot for my scholarship, which is indexed. But many SMU studentscholarships are not indexed, which means they do not increase atthe same rate that tuition increases. As a consequence, each yearthere are students who have to either stop attending SMU or takeout additional loans and work second jobs to pay the increasedtuition.

I want to encourage the administration to dedicate a largeportion of the next capital campaign to creating more studentscholarships and indexing the scholarships that are currentlyavailable.

Additionally, I would like to continue working to improve schoolspirit and campus unity. I am currently sitting on a committeechaired by the athletics department that is trying to get at least15,000 people in the stands at each football game next year. Ofcourse, there are not even 15,000 students on the SMU campus, but Iwant to work to make the football games, as well as all athleticevents, more inviting and fun for SMU students. I also want to seemore participation in on campus programming that can bring allstudents together — greek and non-greek, undergraduate andgraduate, commuter and resident, international and local.

SMU is more than just a place to me: it is a home. SMU studentsare more than just people I have class with; they are people Irespect and love. I want to make my home a better place for thepeople I care about. I want to serve you — my friends, myclassmates, my fellow students, my family — as your nextStudent Body President.

Lyndsey Hummert is running for student body president. Shemay be reached at [email protected].