If elected Texas A&M student body president, former Student Government Association vice president for campus relations Stoney Burke said he will “actively represent the Aggie student community” by setting attainable goals for strengthening the University now, not later.
Burke, a senior international studies major, said he wants to increase student involvement on campus by placing more emphasis on extracurricular activities, establishing online message boards within student government and educating students about campus issues such as new fees and parking changes.
“(Getting students more involved) is something that’s a cliche that you’ll hear every year, but you never can have enough involvement,” Burke said.
Burke said he voted in favor of all three fee increases in the February fee referendum, but said there is a difference between voting simply for personal reasons and making decisions that affect the entire student body.
“If I’m sitting at the chair of the Student Fee Advisory Board, I have to look at that and be like, ‘How is this going to affect students,’ and I have to get adequate feedback on that,” he said.
A&M needs a more welcoming and diverse environment, Burke said.
“Every single student at this University pays the exact same amount of tuition and fees, but we don’t all receive the exact same amount of respect,” Burke said.
Burke said he would like to get students more involved in improving community respect for minorities by establishing incentive-based diversity programs that provide academic extra credit for students who participate.
“Some of them may be just thinking about academic extra credit, but once they’re in that room they could learn so much,” he said.
Burke said he will focus on returning the burning of Bonfire to campus in some shape or form and building it up from there.
“We have to start small and I think the administration has shown that the burning can be feasible and we can start small with that burning and build up,” he said. “And how that burning takes place, whether or not that’s through a service project, that seems to be possibly in the works.”
As SBP, Burke said, he would not support the Unity Project off-campus bonfire, saying it impedes the efforts to bring Bonfire back to campus.