Destinee Marking
Senior Writer
[email protected]

In March, Murray State students elected J.T. Payne as their new Student Government Association president.

A junior from Henderson County, Kentucky, Payne will also be responsible for representing the student body as the Student Regent on the Board of Regents.

On Aug. 24, The News sat down with Payne to discuss the new semester. Some answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

What are your goals and main priorities heading into this year?
“I want to be the most accessible and visible SGA president in Murray State history. I also want to be a strong and active voice on the Board of Regents. I think I have already started to do that; it was just announced that I am going to co-chair one of the committees for the Board of Regents. I requested to chair the Enrollment Management and Student Success Committee because I think it’s important to have a student leading that committee.”

What are your goals for the University?
“I want the Board of Regents to be transparent. I want our University as a whole, student government included, to be transparent. We’ve got initiatives, we’ve got problems, we’ve got goals. We have to be sure the whole campus community knows about those initiatives, knows about those problems, knows about those solutions. Once everybody knows, we can all work together to make things better.”

Something on a lot of people’s minds right now is transparency. Are you able to provide any insight as to why students are not being provided with clearer updates on certain issues?
“I think that our University is in a transitional period. Our Vice President of Enrollment Management is not here, we have an interim president, we have an interim athletic director… There’s a lot of change and sometimes things are lost in communication. I’m not making an excuse for anybody; something I have expressed both to the interim president and to the Board of Regents is that we have to be better at being direct about things, and saying ‘This is our policy. This is why we made a decision.’ I think students and the community will respect that.”

As the chair of the Enrollment Management and Student Success committee, what qualities would an ideal candidate for Associate Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Management possess?
“We have to have somebody who loves Murray State. To me that means – let’s look internally. When you have somebody that loves the University and has ties to the University, 95 percent of the time, they’re going to do a better job than somebody who’s just using Murray as a stepping stone. We have to stop that, and we have to get people who want to be here, who want to make a difference, and who want to help students.”

How can students that already attend Murray State help with the process of increasing enrollment?
“The way students can help is very simple; go back to your high school, tell your brothers, tell your sisters, tell your friends… tell them how great your experience is here at Murray State… Once we get the whole community together doing that, that’s better than any marketing. Students are the key.”

Are there any other messages you would like to communicate to students?
“The most important thing that they can do is stay involved in our University and take advantage of every opportunity that you can, don’t just sit in your dorm. the worst place you can be is in your room, so stay out of that room even if it’s going down to the lobby and getting involved in RCC or RCA. Come out to SGA meetings, go to student organizations, Greek life, whatever it is, get out and get involved. Get engaged on campus.”

Payne’s office is on the first floor of the Curris Center in the Center for Student Involvement. Listen to the full interview below.