Student Government Association Treasurer James Bonsall, business management sophomore, has pledged to listen to students, take action and get results in his campaign for president of the student body.
If elected, Bonsall and Vice Presidential running mate Amanda Denbo, business marketing junior, said they plan to open the lines of communication between students and the SGA and reform the SGA’s involvement in student affairs.
“Our ticket has vision for the future,” Bonsall said. “We will set up SGA for our term and for many years to come.”
Their plans include monthly forums for students to voice their concerns, weekly podcasts on the SGA Web site and time set aside for president’s office hours.
Bonsall said he and Denbo also have four main concerns they plan to address.
The limited availability of plastic bottle recycling bins is one of the issues they said they plan to correct because the bottles are sold throughout campus.
“They take seven hundred years before they even actually begin to decompose in a landfill,” Bonsall said. “We want to actually push more recycling on campus.”
The issue was addressed by the SGA during the current semester but was deemed too costly by the IUS administrators. Bonsall said he plans to work with Physical Plant and the administrators to get the funding needed to increase campus recycling, even if it requires using off-campus resources.
“If we’re not able to fund it on campus we are going to see if we can get donations from the community, too,” he said. “We really want to make this happen by the fall semester.”
Their second initiative involves easing the financial burdens students face while attending college. Working with the IU and IUPUI SGAs, they hope to eliminate the sales tax for textbooks purchased at campus book stores, even if it involves taking the issue to the state legislature.
“Right now, Indiana has the sixth highest state sales tax rate in the country at 7 percent,” Bonsall said. “We want to give students a break.”
Their third proposal would be to create a bookstore advisory committee that would handle issues of students returning books after the return deadline, among other things.
He said some students wait until after the first week of class to purchase their textbooks and then find out that certain books aren’t required or that they had purchased the wrong one.
Returning them after the deadline—even if they are still wrapped in plastic—requires letters of approval from the dean of their respective school, their professor and the Office of Administrative Affairs.
“If the book is still in plastic, that’s a little ridiculous,” Bonsall said. “That’s the kind of problem we want to address on this committee.”
The proposed committee would be comprised of two students, two faculty members, the bookstore manager and Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs Dana Wavle.
Their final initiative is to use student activity fees to partially fund advertising and events for student clubs.
“We want to push for something like that so student clubs don’t have to fundraise everything they do,” Bonsall said. “Club dues are fine, but when you have to sell candles, it doesn’t make any sense.”
The Student Life Committee, chaired by Vice Chancellor Ruth Garvey-Nix, is responsible for allocating funds to different organizations. Currently, the majority of the funds go to athletics.
“We still want to fund athletics,” Bonsall said, “but we want to try to find a way where student clubs can actually get funding, too.”
Their plans for IU Southeast are not limited to the previously listed issues.
They said they also want to see more emergency phones installed around the campus, preferably in the parking lots.
“One of those [phones] is in a building on the wall,” Bonsall said. “If I’m stuck outside and need to use it, it’s kind of hard, especially when some buildings close at 10.”
He said working with the Lodge Council to address Residence Life matters is also on their agenda if they are elected.
“We are not just the SGA for residents or commuters,” Bonsall said, “we are going to be the SGA for everybody.”
He said the opening of the residence halls has required the SGA to step up their efforts and involvement at the university, a challenge Bonsall welcomes.
“We’re going to have more of a summer presence,” he said. “We’ll also have more summer meetings to address issues on campus.”
Student Senator Richard Young, political science senior, said he has known Bonsall for more than a year and has been impressed with his responsible attitude.
“He never has to be told to do anything as far as getting things done are concerned,” he said. “He has a real go-getter attitude.”
Young also believes that Denbo’s social personality balances Bonsall’s and that the two make a good combination for the next student president and vice president.
By TRAVIS STURGILL
Staff Writer
trsturgi@ius.edu
