Mackenzee Simms / Contributing Writer
What possesses a man to spend hours of his time and over 50 pieces of chalk writing his campaign slogan across campus? For Garret Grove, the newly elected freshman class president, it was the opportunity to serve his fellow classmates.
“I wanted to serve, that’s really what I enjoyed doing when I was the student body president of my high school,” Grove said. “Being elected now, I just really love to be able to do that and even though it’s pretty early people ask me all the time ‘Hey what have you been doing so far?’ and I’ve finally gotten the request in to hopefully fix the doors in Smith because they always seem to be jammed.”
Grove explains his rationale for submitting a formal request for maintenance by saying, “Obviously, I live in Smith and that’s literally the number one complaint that I’ve probably been getting. I have someone come up to me at least once or twice a week saying ‘Hey the doors in
Smith are terrible.’”
Issues such as the doors in Smith matter to Grove because they matter to the freshman class. Grove cites his number one responsibility as making sure everyone’s voice is heard.
“Even stuff as simple as a jammed door, or basically all the doors, in a certain dorm. I want to do that for the rest of the class of
2023,” Grove said.
Grove asks students to contact him if there is anything that students wish to request something to him.
“You can contact me if you need anything. You can come up to me and talk to me about your request or just to talk because I’ll be here,” Grove said. “I’m open. If you want to just bring up a request to me, it’s ggrove@samford.edu. I’m that serious, just straight up email me.”
In addition to listening to student concerns, Grove has already met with his class officers, the vice president of the freshman class, Maddie Hatcher and Amelia Park, freshman class treasurer. They laid a framework for what they plan to accomplish in the coming year.
“We all love this school, all three of us, and we just want to play our part in making sure that everybody loves it just as much as we do,”
Grove said.
Grove anticipates the possibility to work with Hatcher and Park.
“It’s been really great working with them so far and I look forward to working with them this school year to make Samford even more amazing than it already is. It’s what I’m looking forward to this week, next week, and for the entirety of the school year,” Grove said.
