Student Government President Samantha Mims sat down with Spinnaker to discuss her plans for the summer and some of her plans for the fall.

“The first couple of weeks have been great,” said Mims. “Just getting in the office, it’s been really exciting because it’s a new experience.”

After a 10 day suspension, Mims said that her first couple of weeks in office have been going well and being able to meet with students has been her favorite part of the job so far. Mims recently met with students at Starbucks in her new project called, “Starbucks with SG.” She sat down with students and discussed several projects that her administration had planned and to see what other issues students have that could be resolved by SG.

The first projects on Mim’s to-do list is to finish the Nature Trail Renovation project and the Starbucks Lounge Renovation. The Nature Trail renovation is out for bid, however the university is having a hard time finding a contractor that is within the budget of $500,000. This has punctured the hope that the Nature Trails will begin sooner rather than later.

The Starbucks renovation is also being delayed and there is no set date for when the lounge will be renovated. The renovation hopes to bring in new furniture, replace the back table facing the windows, and to add in more charging stations. The lounge is set to be done before the fall semester, however no set date has been placed yet.

One new intiative the Mims administration is hoping to start this fall is the Rising Leaders Program, a program that takes a group of “First Time in College” freshmen and introduces them to not only leadership programs in SG and their agencies, but also to organizations across campus.

The reason for the program is the low retention rate in SG. Mims wants to show students how much work and effort is put into being a member of SG.

“One thing that I’ve seen is that our retention is very bad. Partially, I think that we can be to blame for that,” said Mims. “Part of the other reason, I think, is that students just don’t know what Student Government is, they don’t know the time commitment, things like that, or they think it’s like a club.”

There will be an application process for the program that Mims hopes to hand out during the freshman orientations.

Mims does plan on leaving office for a study abroad in Spain, along with Vice President Cole Poppell and Chief of Staff Zach Levensohn. The trip will take place from July 1 to July 11. She will stay acting president because she will have access to her phone and she will continue to stay in contact with her cabinet and the executive branch.

One other trip that Mims will be attending is the Florida Student Association (FSA) gathering in which 11 student body presidents from several universities in Florida meet and discuss political issues that face college students in the Florida Senate in Tallahassee. Mims has been elected as the External Vice Chair for the FSA.

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