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Gillespie, Law prioritize accountability of leaders |
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Thursday, 20 March 2008 |
 Junior political science majors Jamison P. Gillespie and James M. Law hope to bring campus wide recognition of SGA’s existence, make appalnet more efficient, and improve the textbook rental system. Photo by Jameykay Young
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by ANNE BAKER
News Reporter
Jamison P. Gillespie and James M. Law want to use their skills to bring change to Appalachian State University.
Student Government Association presidential candidate Gillespie is a junior political science major from Asheville.
Gillespie has previous SGA experience as he was involved with the Senate last year and for a brief time this year; he is a part of Appalachian State’s College Democrats as well.
Law, the vice presidential candidate, is also a junior political science major and is from Northern Virginia.
As vice president of the university’s club running team and an active part of the Ultimate Frisbee team,
Law has had the opportunity to take on several leadership roles.
Both Gillespie and Law have attended Appalachian State since the beginning of their freshman year.
After his time in SGA Senate this year, Gillespie feels something needs to be done to bring the
principle of accountability back by holding professors and students in elected positions responsible for
their actions.
“We feel that there are a lot of things that aren’t going very well for students and it is time for an
administration to lead a new Senate to change those things for the better and to represent the
students,” Gillespie said.
He said he hopes to accomplish this by bringing more professionalism to the job of SGA president and
letting people know the representation of students is an important factor in being successful.
“If you’re here to represent the students, you’re here to do a job, and you’re here to make Appalachian
State a better place. Now let’s do it,” Gillespie said.
Law said he would like to start with the budget that is given to the university’s club sports teams.
As a member, he has seen that the money is not split equally between all the different teams and this
can hinder their ability to compete and attend tournaments, he said.
Gillespie said he also plans on making sure the textbook rental system is utilized to the best of its
ability.
Campaign Goals
• Bring more professionalism to the job of SGA president and let people know the representation of students is an important factor in being successful.
• Fix AppalNET and make it more efficient possibly through an internship program with students.
• Make sure the textbook rental system is utilized to the best of its ability and require professors to tell students why they have to purchase books.
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“At least as far as our collegiate career has gone, we have noticed that the price of textbooks gets
higher every semester,” he said.
Students whose professors require them to buy books need to be told why they have to buy what they
do, Gillespie said.
Gillespie and Law said an additional issue on their platform is fixing AppalNET and making it more
efficient for students.
There have been several cases this year of it going down at crucial times when it shouldn’t have,
Gillespie said.
He said he has talked to several computer science majors about the possibility of taking the problems
with AppalNET and trying to correct them as a project or intern experience.
Law said campus safety is something that needs to be followed closely, and both he and Gillespie
want to derive a system of alerting students in a timely and accurate manner about possible dangers
on campus.
The text-messaging system that was recently implemented could cause and spread panic instead of
helping the situation, he said, and he plans to conduct research on how the communication lines can
be opened further between the police, the university and students.
Gillespie said he hopes to accomplish the campaign’s platform goals and to continue the friendly and
personalized atmosphere that is evident at Appalachian State.
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