A former speaker of the Atlanta campus senate is looking to get students to A.C.H.I.E.V.E. with him as president.
Anthony Jones’ campaign for SGA’s presidency uses that acronym to simplify his platform and inspire students to join him in accomplishing his policies.
“Each letter stands for something different. The ‘A’ is for adapt. I want us to be able to achieve and innovate. You know, we’re the No. 2 most innovative school in the country and I just want us to continue to climb up that rung. The ‘C’ is for challenge. As president, I would want my administration to combat nay challenge that comes their way … whenever that time comes around for my administration I want to be able to handle it as smoothly and professionally as possible,” he said.
Jones said the ‘H’ stands for height, and that he wants SGA to exponentially grow and move forward.
He continued describing the acronym by saying the ‘I’ is for innovate. He wants Georgia State to improve the organization’s technology and move away from paper binders to electronic ones.
The next initiative Jones wanted to implement involved getting freshmen to be more connected to the university and to truly feel like they’re Panthers.
“The first ‘E’ stands for engage, and I would want to do that through a tradition I kinda came up with called the Panther Pounce Walk,” he said.
The Walk would lead freshmen by the Pounce statue in Unity Plaza on their way to their convocation.
“The ‘V’ stands for variety. I would want my senate as well as my executive to look diverse. Not just look diverse in how we look, but be diverse where we come from and our different backgrounds,” he said.
The last thing he wanted his administration to put forth is effort.
“The last ‘E’ is for effort. I just feel like even if we go down as the worst administration in history, if you put your best forward and you gave your best effort, I feel like that speaks more on your character than anything else,” he said.
In addition to his A.C.H.I.E.V.E. plan, Jones also wants to expand student accessibility to senators through an increase in SGA meetings.
“I want to add more SGA meetings but not in the traditional sense. Our meetings now, people know are very long and they’re very talk-heavy, and it’s very much so a dictation,” he said. “I would want to implement on the weeks we do not have university-wide or campus-wide senate meetings to have university-wide or campus-wide town halls … these would be a lot more relaxed.”
When asked why students should vote for him, Jones said that he is the most qualified to hold the position.
“I feel like I’m the best person for the job. I’ve been in SGA the longest. I have the most executive board experience. I’ve gone on the most conferences, and I just feel like I’m the only person for this job. There’s no one else running that knows the student body like I do,” he said.
