Daily Egyptian Politics Editor

New Undergraduate Student Government leaders will push for improvements on campus based on their campaign platform, which will prove the platform was not a bundle of empty campaign promises, USG president-elect Kristie Ayres says.

Ayres, and her running mate Jackie Smith, crafted their platform around the acronym FAITH, which stands for freedoms, academics, input, technology and housing. Ayres said she and Smith developed plans during the campaign to work with the University and the city to better all of those areas. The first part of the process, she said, is to meet with SIUC’s new chancellor.

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We have a meeting set up with Chancellor Argersinger, Ayres said. We’re going to show her what we’ve done and what we’ve tried to accomplish with the current chancellor and Student Affairs and that we’re not completely happy with it.

We’re going to ask her what routes we need to take to work toward our goals.

Ayres said her Progress Party pledge to improve job prospects for SIUC graduates already is being realized. She has spoken with members of the Alumni Association to develop a book or catalog of all SIUC alumni that graduates could use as a resource while job hunting.

USG may also have a new commission position next year to provide more minority representation within USG.

We may be making a minority affairs commission because we can’t guarantee minority representation within the senate each year, she said. But if we have a commission seat, then a minority voice will be guaranteed within the constitution.

In addition, Ayres intends to follow through with her initiative this year to develop a standardized lease for the city by putting pressure on city council members to change zoning within Carbondale to make it similar to zoning in other college towns in Illinois.

Also, USG likely will work with Student Center officials to bring a post office and a hairstyling business to the Student Center. Further plans include re-introducing a plan for a debit card system for meals especially for students living off-campus.

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The success of these plans, however, will not depend solely on the pressure of USG, Ayres said, but also a considerable amount of student input. She wants to bring more Registered Student Organizations together so the student body can have a unified voice.

We need more connectiveness between the RSOs, she said. It would be nice to see a campus community made up of all of the RSOs instead of individual RSOs going their own way and dividing the student voice.

Finally, Ayres said she and Smith have a final goal of attaining and maintaining a full senate. USG has not had a full senate for the past several years.

If we do not have all 41 seats full, we don’t have the full representation of the students, she said. But we won’t get a full senate by having people just fall into our lap. It will be because we’re out there actively seeking them.