Kue, Alexander: President

To be the president of anything, an organization, university, or a country, is a daunting position filled with numerous responsibilities, decisions, and, undoubtedly, tremendous stress (although I am positive that the fat paycheck received at the end of the week is a large benefit that would make all the “trouble” worth the time and effort). I must first point out that I could not fill Dr. Rankin’s shoes.  What he does every day, what he has done to this day, and what he continues to do deserves praise of the highest magnitude. However, given the powers that come with being the president of a university such as Southern Arkansas University (SAU), I would usher in a new era on campus lifestyle, particularly in the health department.

As president of SAU, given my background and understanding of the importance of living a healthy lifestyle, my first order of business would be to make school lunch plans optional. The reason being that I understand certain students want to be independent with their meal choices, be that preparing their own meals or eating off-campus. Additionally, I would offer healthier alternatives to the foods served in the cafeteria such as: healthy pizza (made from whole-wheat and lean meat products), lean burgers, grilled (not fried) chicken, and low-sodium baked french fries. Next on my agenda would be to encourage physical fitness by designing a system of rewarding students and faculty based on their physical activity levels (of course, this would be optional). Furthermore, I would make the Wellness Center (soon to be the Mulerider Activity Center) open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week because I understand, from personal experience, that the hours of the Wellness Center do not always correspond with the free time of students, staff,  and faculty. Third on the list would be to build new parking lots across campus (especially outside of the Honors College). Currently, it is near impossible to find a parking spot during the weekdays and the traffic can get very hectic. Therefore, the most reasonable solution would be to simply organize the construction of a parking lot. My last order of business would be to change quiet hours from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. because personally, it is impossible to try and sleep at 9:00 p.m. (even with ear plugs in) when someone is practicing on a saxophone in the neighboring dorm room.

As I implied earlier, I would make a terrible president – the great responsibility that comes with the president’s great power would be simply overwhelming – but given the past and present hardships I had to endure, the simple changes that I would make as president of SAU would, perhaps, make campus life more enjoyable.