New Texas A&M Student Body President Outlines Goals

Mikey Jaillet is determined always to put the “student” in student government – not that it has ever left at Texas A&M University. And the newly elected student body president can look to his own campaign as Exhibit A.

Jaillet (pronounced Gillette, like the razor) had an 18-member campaign team that he says was the difference in winning the spring presidential election and becoming the student leader of Texas’ largest university.

“Our campaign team put in a tremendous amount of work and effort in helping me win,” Jaillet, a junior finance major from Round Rock said.

“It’s a great honor for me. Never, ever in my wildest dreams did I think I could represent our student body, yet here we are and we won. I am so grateful to my supporters and those who voted for me.”

Jaillet says he has several goals he wants to accomplish as student body president, but two stand out among all others.

He wants to improve communication efforts between all students at Texas A&M and create a more unified voice as their No. 1 representative.

And secondly, he wants to make sure a statue is erected to honor Matthew Gaines, the first African-American state senator from Washington County who played a key role in the 12^th Texas Legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 276 that created the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas by way of the Morrill Act, which created the land-grant system of colleges in 1862.

Jaillet said efforts are underway to raise $350,000 for the statue “and we need it to honor his legacy and the work of the Texas Legislature in 1862 that would create the Texas A&M University we attend today.”

A student resolution was passed in 2017 honoring Gaines, noting “Senator Gaines was a firm supporter of education and worked tirelessly to pass legislation that enabled Texas to take advantage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act, an act of Congress that provided grants of land to states to finance the establishment of colleges specializing in ‘agriculture and the mechanic arts’.”

Jaillet, who takes office April 23, said that all student government positions are important and that student government has always been a priority at Texas A&M, which is not the case at many other Texas universities.

“Student government is big here because Texas A&M has always been student-run and student-led,” Jaillet said. “Students have always had a bigger voice in the decision-making process here.  I think that’s one of the things that makes Texas A&M such a great school – students come first.”