By Andrew Kutzer

What made you want to run for SGB president?

“For the past three years at [KU], I have been involved in various issues that are dedicated to the student body. I’ve built up my connections with various offices and student groups on campus. I’ve networked with various organizations.”

“It’s really because of my passion for the students and my passion to give them the best possible experience that they can have. I was afforded that at KU, to be able to evolve and become who I am. I think every student deserves that. It’s imperative we create initiatives, programs and work with the appropriate resources to afford students that.”

On the issues:

“I’m definitely more than qualified for the position. I’ve worked with diversity and organizations outside of that. I’ve worked with academic organizations, the health and wellness center, housing, the library, CASA and connections.

“All of these things tie into some of the major issues that I am focusing on and a lot of them include campus climate. Campus climate, especially for minority students, is not the best. So, we have some resources here but are we investing in them to make them the best that they can be. Some would argue that we’re not.”

“That all ties into retention, ultimately. What keeps student here? What is not keeping students here? It’s important that I am able to bring that voice to student government as the body president. Kutztown is my home and this is my way of giving back to the university for giving me so much. I also want to make sure the students get just as much. I like to say it’s about the ‘we’ rather than the ‘I’.”

What organizations are you involved with?

“I’ve been involved with allies of [KU], FMLA, diversity council, SGB, presidential ambassadors, transfer student association, BSU, lady blossoms, and SCAR. All of the organizations that are part of the diversity council. As far as offices on-campus, I’ve been involved with the multicultural center, glbtq center, women’s center, health and wellness, disability, and connections…

“These are all the things I’ve networked with over the past three years to build up that kind of support for the students. By working with housing and dining, we’ve created gender inclusive housing. Working with allies, we have gender-neutral bathrooms and a preferred name policy. Working with SGB and diversity groups, we have the diversity council. These are just some examples of initiatives but there’s so much more we can do.”

What is your history on SGB?

“I was elected fall of 2015 and started as a liberal arts and science representative. During my first semester, I started working with different committees and was assigned to the constitution and policies [committee]. I also worked with academic affairs and student affairs to work on things like gender-neutral bathrooms and starting think about establishing the student bill of rights. I ran for treasurer but nobody could win and it kept tying. I was [eventually] appointed as student affairs chair but our parliamentarian left. I ran for parliamentarian unopposed and got elected. Since then, I’ve been working with student groups. I helped to formulate the diversity council as well as develop the student bill of rights. Also, looking at reaching out to student organizations to provide them resources as far as their budgets are concerned and status upgrades.”