The president's plan

With the second half of the 2014-15 academic year now underway, students’ thoughts are inevitably turning to the future and potential new roles and responsibilities to inherit.

It’s a season of transition, and it’s where MSU President Teddy Saull is planning to lay the groundwork of his biggest projects, even with his successor soon to be elected in the presidential elections this month.

“Now’s the time when people are starting to think about what they’re going to do next year, and I get excited about people getting excited about leadership [roles],” Saull said.

But with four months still left in his tenure, Saull’s legacy will certainly be influenced by what he has in place for the coming months.

The Peer Tutoring Network is one such example, for which Saull is expecting a soft launch by May 2015, followed by a bigger launch for the beginning of next year.

Although similar programs already exist in a number of capacities throughout the university, Saull emphasized the affordability of the plan, as well as the type of engagement it will be able to create for students. The idea for the program is to adopt a more social capacity with student use, in a system that acts in a similar vein to RateMyProfessors.com.

“One of the really neat things I like is that the tutors on the site will have a profile, a tutor profile, kind of like a LinkedIn. So if you’re going to get a tutor, you can learn about your tutor: [for] other people who have taken this tutor, how have they rated them?”

As a part of his role as President, Saull will also reveal the finalists for participatory budgeting through the Student Life Enhancement Fund, which will be voted on during the same period as the MSU presidential elections this year. Based on the information provided at the Jan. 11 SRA meeting, roughly $680,000 will be available for a couple ideas to be implemented, by the students, for the students.

At the SRA meeting Saull also noted his intention to thoroughly discuss the year-end celebration over the next two SRA meetings before proposing an allocation of funding.

“I’m kind of really excited... I actually think it’s a good thing that it got shot down the first time. What we’ve come back with is more for every student,” said Saull.

With the experience of Frost Week now under his belt, Saull expressed his excitement to continue that similar planning for the end of the year.

“The biggest thing I liked about Frost Week is that it was a collaborative effort... It wasn’t perfect, but it was good, it was a strong start... Frost Week this year, we planted a seed, it’ll be better next year, and I want to plant another seed for the year-end, because I think it’s an important thing to have as a university,” he said.

“If you create something that brings people together, they want to do it. So it’s with that same energy that I’m excited to approach the year-end [celebration].”