Mikesell's plan for next year centered on better PR

Most students are mainly focused on finals—that’s not the case for the DSCSA leaders.

Students with DSCSA leadership positions are actively interviewing prospects for next year’s DSCSA positions. Brody Mikesell, next year’s student body president and a senior integrated studies major from Henefer, is heading the interview process and looking for the right people to fit his vision for next year.

“There is a Hawaiian saying that says the reach of a tree’s branch is determined by the trunk,” Mikesell said. “To be an effective leader next year I need to have effective leaders who I can turn to that are going get the job done for students.

Student involvement is a major focus for DSCSA next year.

“We really want to amplify the students’ voice to make sure it’s heard all across campus,” said Wyatt Hopkins, next year’s vice president of academics and a junior integrated studies major from Mayfield.

Mikesell said student government could do more to get students involved, and he has a plan already in motion tailored to this motif.

“I’m most excited about using student government as more of a tool for the student body,” Mikesell said. “We want to make all the departments work together with synergy to produce events and activities on campus that students actually want.”

In order for student government to know what students want, he said the PR members will do polls, surveys and face-to-face time on campus and during events.

“We are going to have a more conscious effort to talk and get more feedback from the students,” Mikesell said. “Our PR department is going to be in charge of going to events and talking to students to see what they like or don’t like about events. It’s going to require students to talk and participate in these polls and these surveys. [Students] need to be open and honest about what they want to see different on campus.”

In connection to student involvement efforts, Mikesell plans on having clubs and organizations do activities on campus with the help of student government.

“They will have access to our PR department; they will have access to our student life department, so they can have their events publicized and marketed well,” Mikesell said. “They will have contact to venues and to the personnel on campus that can make these events happen and be a little bit more of a big deal.”

Also, the PR department will be altered.

“With PR, our plan is to condense the different outlets PR uses and make it one main thing people can look to for social media and other things like that,” Hopkins said.

If students want to talk with DSCSA members, then they are encouraged to do so.

“Just come stop by the student government office and introduce yourself,” Hopkins said. “We are going to make it a nice hangout place, a place you can come visit between classes.”

Mikesell, Hopkins and others are spending the last weeks of school to get prepared for next year.

“I am in the student government room from four to five hours working with current student government and working with the professional staff we have to make sure all of our ducks are in a row for next year,” Mikesell said.

DSCSA members are excited for next year and look forward to the aura DSC will have.

“Let’s make this a college feel,” Hopkins said. “I hope everyone gets that old school spirit of the Rebels that we used to have. I hope it comes back.”

Gregory Noel, next year’s vice president of clubs and a junior psychology major from Las Vegas, was unavailable for comment.