The Hawks’ Herald sat down with Student Body President-elect Jordan St. Onge to talk about her plans for the student body next year.

1. What are your goals as the incoming student body president?

As student body president, I really want to reach many more students. As the Student Senate, we are elected by the students to serve the students. I want more students to know that we represent them and we will listen to their concerns. Especially during this past year, some people did not even know who to go talk to about events that took place on this campus. I want everyone to know that with me as the person they elected as their student body president, I will listen and advocate for their needs. I also will be pushing for more student representation on all university committees. It is important that students get a seat at the table and have an opportunity to voice their thoughts and especially their concerns. I want to work on having more transparency between myself and the University President. As the liaison between the student body and professional staff, I think it is important for me to have these open and candid conversations with our president so he can get a better understanding of the student perspective. Lastly, I would like to continue my work with food services and many others to work on ways to make our campus more environmentally conscious.

2. How do you plan on meeting those goals?

I plan on meeting these goals by taking advantage of new and different communication outlets that may not have been used in the past. For example, I’d like to take advantage of video messaging. Not only will this provide a recognizable face for students to approach when needing to discuss an issue, but communication can be done more clearly and concisely to the student body than through an email. Students deserve to hear the voice of the president they elected and what the Student Senate is doing to advocate for the betterment of our community. I also plan on continuing to foster strong relationships with professional staff on campus and having them regularly attend Senate meetings to hear the concerns of students. This goes for the University President as well. I will foster a relationship with him in hopes of creating better lines of communication between the Office of the President and the student body.

3. How will you use your past Senate experience in this new role?

I truly believe that I have already fostered so many relationships with people throughout my years in the Senate thus far. These relationships are with professional staff, organization leaders, club representatives and many more. I hope to continue these relationships as president and work together with others on projects, events and overall change on campus.

4. How do you want to help the students?

As an RA, I have found the benefits of having personal relationships and how that can leave a positive impact on a person. I want to help the students by making them aware that I am available to them and a resource for them. I want students to feel like they can come to me and have a personal conversation with their student body president. Being available is very important, so I think the main thing I want to do to help students is making myself accessible and a true resource so I can continue to make those personal connections.

5. Do you have any comments you want to share with the students?

Similar to how the university challenges itself to be “the university the world needs today,” I have challenged myself to be the student body president you all need today. These past two years have brought so much change and I am aware of this. I ask the student body to please hold me accountable to this challenge. I want to listen to students and faculty to hear their concerns. I want to look back at these two years of so much heartache and be able to show how we bonded as a community, adapted and became stronger at the end. Please give me suggestions and let me know what you need from me so I can advocate for you.