The new president and vice president of the Government of Student Body were elected last week along with the new senators. Daniel Breitbarth, senior in business economics, and Megan Sweere, senior in supply chain management, were voted into the leadership positions for the upcoming year.

After being elected, Breitbarth said he will approach his new position as president with the simple mentality of focusing on what the students want. In an interview with the Daily’s editorial board, Breitbarth showed he is a team-oriented leader — by concentrating on the Senate and his partner Sweere — who appreciates the wants and needs of the students who voted for him.

Breitbarth said he would act on students’ needs and wants and make an effort to connect with them through student organization visits and the GSB library booth. Now that the students have a leader who will listen, it is important that students embrace the opportunity and make their voices heard.

Breitbarth specifically mentioned that he would appreciate student input on the bike share program, CyRide funding and routes and any ideas that might fill the void of events left by Veishea.

“Our platform kind of goes in tandem because … if we don’t have that student feedback, then how are we going to know what to do?” Breitbarth said. “That’s why Megan and I [are] really actively going to be encouraging outreach. With the expansion of the library booth, by going around to groups and seeing what needs they have, what needs we can meet. That’s something that we’re going to look into.

“On top of that, we’ve been a part of so many groups that we know issues. We’ve identified several issues on campus pertaining to overcrowding and various other things that we know all students are concerned with. We’ve got plenty of projects to work on. There’s plenty of policy things that we can do in the short term and plenty of different changes that we can do in the long term as well.”

Breitbarth also outlined some of his short-term goals, including reorganizing Osborne Drive this summer, policy changes about sexual assault and relying on his connections for more expertise on subjects that he might not be as well versed on.

And while not all the issues facing campus and our student government can be solved right away or even in the upcoming school year, Breitbarth and his team seem to have set manageable goals that are likely to show the student body progress.

GSB in its current and future form seems to be in good hands heading into a new Breitbarth era and the goals set for the immediate future should be met with optimism from the student body. The concrete plans laid out by Breitbarth indicate that many of his administration’s goals are attainable and the direction that GSB takes will be heavily influenced by student input.

There could not be a clearer call to action for the student body to truly invest in — or at least gained a heightened awareness of — GSB in the coming year. The government wants very much to serve the best interest of students, but in order for GSB to perform effectively and efficiently, all students must bring their opinions to the table.