Collegiate Times

Correction: This story has been modified from its original version. — The headline of this story has been changed to more accurately reflect its content. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.

UnitedSGA said it knows how to improve the student body at Virginia Tech, and that knowledge comes from understanding what the students want.

"Something that I really want to see in the 2009-10 school year is increased student involvement," said Kirsten Kube, vice presidential candidate. "One of our main goals is trying to connect those students that are not involved. We want them to get involved in different programs and help them feel like they are more connected to the university. We really just want to help unite all of the students at Virginia Tech."

Bobby Thomas, secretary candidate, said it is not just numbers of students that UnitedSGA is looking for.

"There are tons of people participating in Big Event and Relay for Life," Thomas said. "If you look closer, it is the same tons of people participating in these events every single time. But again, if you look closer, it is the same people not getting involved with us because they do not know about the events that SGA has. Our goal is about getting new numbers, and bigger numbers in terms of new participants."

Kube added that it is all about diversifying the types of people that get involved on campus.

Another issue that UnitedSGA is working on is tracking the Blacksburg Transit via a Global Positioning System.

"We are basing our idea off of the infrastructure that is place right now," Miller said. "We are using the resources that are available to us at the point in time. Our idea is to use something that essentially costs us no money. The GPS tracker updates every two minutes, which I think for most students is more than frequent enough to catch the bus on time."

Ricardo Boulware, treasurer candidate, said the Blacksburg Transit system is also working with Apple to develop an application for the iPhone that would allow students to track the bus.

"Virginia Tech is in the process of developing and implementing a few real-time tracking solutions for their fleet," Boulware said. "The application that the iPhone will have allows students to track actual bus positioning and find the closest bus stop to their current location."

UnitedSGA is very focused on the initiatives that it wants to implement on campus next year, but its main concern is the students.

"The more feedback we can get as to what students want, the better," Miller said. "Feedback helps us to learn what we need to do and improve upon to be able to serve everyone."

Kube added that running for election has been such an incredible experience for all of the candidates, including herself.

"This is something that we will never forget," Kube said. "We are so honored to be given the chance to run in this election and to show students that we are here to listen to what their needs and desires are and that we truly want to make a difference in their lives."

Miller said he is glad to be running on the UnitedSGA ticket because all of his teammates have such positive attitudes about how to help the campus.

"We are all so positive about the issues on campus," Miller said. "We are ready to make a move to make campus a better place. I think that for all four of us, we each have our own strengths and weaknesses, but, collectively as a group, we are united."

INFOBOX: Check out the UnitedSGA's Web site at www.unitedsga.com