New BSU student body president speaks on new initiatives

Boise, ID — Newly elected ASBSU President Adam Jones wants to hit the ground running.

"We want to do all these initiatives right from the beginning," said Jones.

One of Jones' key initiatives for this year is to keep Idaho's smartest students at in-state universities. His administration is working on offering a $4000 scholarship for high school students in Idaho with a 3.9 to 4.0 unweighted GPA.

"There are a lot of high performing high school students that didn't have great scholarship offers to stay in state and as such, they took their talents elsewhere," said Jones. "What that causes is brain drain in our state. Some of our best and brightest students are not staying here."

Numbers from the Idaho Board of Education show roughly one third of students with a 3.9 to 4.0 GPA from Idaho high schools are staying in Idaho for higher education. A third of those students didn't go to college at all.

"Our goal is to get those students to go to college, whether it's Boise State, U of Idaho, ISU or LCSC, just get them stay in Idaho. Because Idaho has all the opportunities you need. You should be rewarded for all the work you've done in high school, that's the point of this scholarship," said Jones.

Jones and his administration are also focused on student involvement. Jones wants to work with the university on dedicating an area of campus to fraternities and sororities, so the existing organizations have places to congregate with university involvement.

"This is obviously many years in the future because you know, you can't build houses in a day. However, we want this to be included in the university's strategic plan for the university's growth and development because everyone expects Boise State to grow over the next 10 or 20 years," said Jones.

Jones said while these student-led organizations are known for a lot of things, they are also known for philanthropy. He said adding Greek life will not only benefit the university, it will also benefit the community.

"If we can develop a system where they are more represented and they are more supported for the things that they do, they can give back to the community in larger ways," said Jones.

ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwusSwZJurpWLAtcHDnqWtZZKksbp5z6ucrKGUmru1edKpnJqjo2K8r3nNnq5moZ6ewaqt06Ktnqs%3D