At the end of the 2014-2015 academic year, Jon Heimer was elected to the position of Student Senate Vice President. As vice president, Heimer oversees meetings of the student government.

Heimer was born in Milwaukee, Wis. When he was four, Heimer was adopted and moved to Faribault, Minn. where he grew up. In 2011, he graduated from Faribault Senior High School and went on to college.

During his first two years, Heimer attended South Central College in Mankato, where he earned his associate of arts degree and was involved in student senate. Shortly after, he transferred to SMSU, where he served on the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee (SAFAC) for his first two years.

SAFAC is a committee charged with the task of deciding how to divide student activity fees among the different clubs on campus.   Students pay an activity fee of $8.30 per credit hour which maxes out at $99.60.

Aside from serving on SAFAC and the student government, Heimer is also involved in Charting the Future, a new program the early stages of which are being implemented this year.

“Initially last year, I had some doubts about what the original intentions of Charting the Future were,” Heimer said. “Which is why I decided to apply for the position on the coordinating committee.”

Heimer pointed out that originally some members were not happy with the level of involvement among faculty and staff. Some of these committees only had a few student and faculty members.

Most members were from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities’ (MnSCU) central office.

Heimer went on to say that people felt the input from students, faculty, and administration was not being heard by the MnSCU office.

“Our job, in a general sense, is to make sure that the implementation of Charting the Future hears involvement from all aspects of university life…and that Charting the Future ends up being a really good program.”