A little more than a week after officially announcing his campaign, Missouri Students Association presidential candidate Xavier Billingsley presented his platform to the Legion of Black Collegians during the group’s senate meeting Wednesday night. The presentation marked the candidate’s first time presenting his platform to the influential student council.
“I love talking to organizations,” Billingsley said. “I’m just the type of person that loves going to different organizations and talking to them about what I represent and just knowing how other organizations are run.”
At the presentation, Billingsley addressed how his campaign would help members of the LBC and emphasized the slogan and goal of his campaign, to elevate MU as a whole.
“It’s good to network outside of your own sometimes,” Billingsley said. “LBC has some great goals this year, and I’m excited to work with them to try and find out what they really want from the MSA president and what they’re looking forward to in this next semester and the current semester.”
Among the campaign items announced, Billingsley discussed wanting to examine how the plus and minus grade system was impacting MU students. He also outlined his ideas for the One Mizzou program, including a kick-off week on campus coupled with a concert to end the week.
“The big thing for me is expanding One Mizzou,” Billingsley said during the presentation. “It needs a true definition. I want to have a week where it’s just One Mizzou week straight out. It’s a week where we would have speakers talk about unity on campus and talk about how we can get our campus to be more together.”
During a question-and-answer session following the presentation of his platform, Billignsley said that communication between student groups, including communication between MSA and LBC, was a key aspect of the student experience at MU.
“I thought (the presentation) was great,” LBC senator Chelsea Drake said. “I think his themes of uniting all the different parts of campus together are great. That’s definitely something we need on campus, to have more communication between MSA and LBC.”
Billingsley said both he and his running mate, Helena Kooi, are reaching out to student organizations to see how they could help them have a louder voice on campus.
“I can appreciate the fact that (Billingsley) is breaking it down into simple terms like elevate unity, general improvements and sustainability,” LBC delegate Breana Jones said. “One thing that may need to be talked about a bit more is the plus-minus system. I think maybe he should explain it a little more for those freshman and sophomores who don’t understand.”
On his campaign website, the MSA presidential hopeful highlighted communication as one of the major parts of his platform.
“To keep the message we have alive we have to keep on pressing and keep on going to the student organizations,” Billingsley said. “That’s what makes the big difference with the campaign.”
Billingsley said his goal was to talk to LBC one more time prior to the MSA presidential elections this November. Billingsley and Kooi intend to meet with as many student organizations as possible before the election.
“I think he has a great chance,” Jones said. “I would have to check out the different platforms, but it was something that as of right now I would definitely vote for.”
