The president-elect of the Student Government Association will be using this summer break to prepare for the upcoming school year.

Smithland junior Cory Dodds, who currently serves as SGA’s director of information technology, said he will be working with people he hopes to appoint to SGA positions in the fall to prepare for his presidency.

“I have spoken to several people, but of course they won’t be officially appointed until senate approves them,” Dodds said.

Dodds said he wants to work on a strong public relations campaign and a campaign to inform students about the new safe ride program that will be implemented in the fall.

“So, we will basically be working on a lot of different plans that we can follow to hopefully hit the ground running as soon as the semester begins,” Dodds said.

A vital element is developing relationships with faculty, students and administrators, Dodds said. He also pointed out that there will be a large number of people he will be working with in the fall who he hasn’t even met yet.

“So one thing that I think is definitely important is just meeting new people and building those relationships so that when things arise that I want to get done, I already know who to contact and hopefully have a good relationship with them to get things done,” Dodds said.

Dodds will also officially be sworn in as the student regent for the Board of Regents during the summer at a June meeting.

Over the summer, Dodds said he will be in constant contact with Lewisport freshman Cain Alvey, an SGA senator who will serve as administrative vice president next year, and Bowling Green sophomore Keyana Boka, who currently serves as campus improvements chairperson and will be executive vice president in the fall.

“One thing that I want to do is to sit down with both of them and just have a discussion about what they want to accomplish and how we as an organization can lend them that support, and hopefully help them get things done,” Dodds said.

Dodds also wants to talk more in depth with Christopher Costa, an SGA senator who will serve as speaker of the senate next year.

“I mean, the speaker—they’re a non-voting member of exec,” Dodds said. “So, basically they’re the voice of the legislative branch on the executive branch, but I think Chris has a lot of great ideas, and so we will definitely be working together.”

Dodds is currently meeting with Parking Services to finalize plans for a safe ride program.

“Hopefully, the meeting that I’m having on Friday will be our last one and we will have the safe ride program ready for the week of M.A.S.T.E.R. Plan,” Dodds said.

Alvey said he has plans to prepare for his office over the summer as well. He will go over the budgets from last year to help plan for next year’s budget and revamp the organizational aid application to make it better for both the groups applying and SGA.

Alvey also talked about keeping in contact with Boka and Dodds over the summer.

“We’re planning on meeting a few times this summer just to talk about what our plans are for senate for next fall and spring,” Alvey said “What we would like to see happen within the senate, and then what we want to grow on, and how we want to grow as a senate.”

Boka agreed that she would definitely be keeping in touch with them as they make plans for next year.

“I think all of us agree on the same main issues, and we’re always coming up with new ideas together too,” Boka said.