Vice President Lovejoy, Senate President Way, members of Dr. Verret’s cabinet, officers of the Student Government, and our student body.

For 3 years, I’ve stood in the shadows watching and listening to President Ukot, President Ugoh, and President Prescott. Not only have I listened to them, but I’ve also listened to many individual students. And for the most part, something doesn’t seem to be adding up in what I’ve seen SGA accomplish vs how students have felt about the organization for the past 3 years. Within the previous administrations, I saw successes such as the GPA requirement to keep academic scholarships being decreased from a 3.3 to a 3.1, the cafeteria hours being extended from 7 PM to 9 PM, and agreement from administration to completely redesign UC 219 and the commuter student lounge. And of course, because of successes like these, that certain SGA members are fully aware of, we, as SGA, can end up losing touch with what the student body truly feels. I’ve witnessed officers, including myself, fall victim to the expectation that students should just know what's happening around the campus because we sent them the email and we posted it on IG. Obviously, that’s not enough.

For 3 years, I’ve heard and seen many claims about the arrogant and self-absorbed leaders who used their popularity to coerce their way into this elitist Greek pipeline organization of ours, and how we are just the puppets for the money hungry big bad administrators. And as much as I’d love to simply tell students “Hey pal, that’s not true,” I run into 2

barriers. Firstly, it’s far too many people who have made different claims since I’ve been here to debunk myself.

Secondly, what do my words mean to them if they don’t see something going against their claim? Misinformation will always pop up, as it’s in our nature to say what we think we know. But fact checking must be a skill that we, as the student body, must obtain. At the same time, how can we expect students to fact check each other if the information is not publicized?

Administrators, you do an excellent job working to improve the lives of students. Even when it means doing work within multiple departments and working many hours after you clock out. But this is hindered because of poor communication through the process of improvement, which only makes the growing pains ache worse. This is why the number 1 priority during this semester should be to maximize our transparency, and most importantly, our communication. This is why SGA will be implementing a campus-wide text system, we will be utilizing the TVs around campus for promotion, we are remodeling the SGA website, we will hold a public executive board meeting once a month, and why we requested that the university publicly presents their budget. I am figuring out the best way to be the conduit of information between the administration and those who elected me. But as I fulfill this duty, we must come to terms with the fact that everything that I say will not make you comfortable, but it will be the truth and reflect the reality that we are in.

The last credible research company I saw, Princeton Review, ranked our institution as the number 1 unhappiest student body in the nation. This was last conducted 2 years before I was enrolled, but I don’t doubt that if it were conducted in the Spring of 2024, we’d be in the top 3. Now, I’d like all of you to know that I recognize that there is a mental health crisis amongst our generation. SGA as an organization knows that there's a mental health crisis amongst our peers. And admin, I know that you know that we're in a mental health crisis, because I've noticed your efforts to combat this through the amount of mental health counsellors you hired over the past few years and the awareness campaigns that you’ve conducted such as the RU OK campaign. But for the second time tonight, that is not enough.

Administration, your thought process must shift from "school is supposed to be hard" to "how are we increasing the students' mental stress and what can we do to relieve it?" You must consider, is the reason that our students are unhappy because they wait until 1 PM for a shuttle that was supposed to show up at 12:30? Or is it because they sent 4 unanswered emails over a span of 3 months? Or is it because they are told to change dorms with only a couple days of notice...speaking on last year. Or is it because fee increases aren't promoted to students until after they've chosen or paid for something way less than 90 days in advance? Or is it because when they call one office, that office sends them to another office, and that office sends them back to the office they came from? How on earth can one be happy or want to give back to an entity that makes it harder to improve their life? So, I urge that you all make the necessary adjustments within your offices to identify and relieve students of burdens that you all can control. Because it disappoints me, as it should disappoint you all, to hear story after story of students being affected due to something like a lack of communication.

As long as I’m the President, I will not take the focus off this critical issue, and I urge all 98 of our officers to do whatever you can to amplify the voices of our peers so that the priority of true transparency and communication will be at the forefront of every administrator’s agenda. Here is the bottom line. The overall state of the student body is concerning. And how can we argue that when students have shared their opinions, and those opinions have not reflected that they are happy where they’re at. Although I’m noticing a positive trend, we cannot afford to wait any longer to step onto the path that I'm pointing at. A new century is upon us, and we must seize the opportunity to strengthen our student body and our love for this institution.

Thank you.

Chase Patterson
Student Government Association President 2024-2025