Q: What are your goals as the new Student Trustee?

A: My goals [as] new student trustee is to be the bridge between the student body and the board and administration and to be able to bring to the board student concerns that aren’t always heard. Also, [I want to] invite clubs to actually present at the board meetings so the administration and the board will know what’s going [on] around campus and the achievements that the students have made progress [on]. Also to hear student input, even if its something casual like how their school year is going or what goals they would like to see change at the college.

Q: As a Student Trustee, you are a member of the board but your vote technically doesn’t count. What impact do you want to have with that?

A: Although in technicalities the vote doesn’t count, for many years the board actually takes into account what the student trustee says. So if there’s a tie about something and it just needs one vote to break that tie, they’ll most likely go and favor the student trustee because they very much value the opinion, and they want the student trustee to be involved as much as they can. I think just knowing that although the vote technically doesn’t count, you’re still bringing all of those concerns to the board so while people may not go in your favor, at least the board heard the concerns of the students and when they’re voting on stuff they can take the student’s voice into consideration.

Q: What made you decide to run for Student Trustee?

A: I wanted to be very involved with the students. I very much care for people, and I’m kind of new this year. So, I wanted to be even more involved in COD and get to know many people on the board and just people who work with the board but also get to know more students around campus as I can, especially since I just got into NSO [New Student Orientation] for the fall, so I can connect [with] students even more.

Q: Do you have any specific goals to integrate the students with the board?

A: I think I’m going to try some little events where we have some food, and I give someone a card, and they can write anonymously what their input is unless they want to put their name. Just some casual meetups so I can get to know [them] but also since I am a part of Student Leadership Council, attending events that we have. We’ve started this thing called ‘Pizza with the President’ or if it’s just [Student Leadership Council] events like Coffee Connections is [another] one we have also started up. Those are a great way to get the student body very involved, and I can introduce myself as the student trustee, and they know that there is someone there that can get their voice heard.

Q: What is your perspective on the enrollment decline at the college as a student, but also now as the Student Trustee?

A: I think enrollment decline just is about during the generations… when people were born, how many people were born at that time. I think we are just in a period of time where there isn’t as [many] college-level students, but I do know that in a couple of years there are a lot more students that will be incoming from high school, and we will have a larger pool of enrollment because of it. That’s why the tuition has gone up a dollar, but that is decided each year. It is not like we are paying for future students; we are just figuring out this year. If enrollment goes up, we can bring [tuition] down. We could bring it down even more. It just depends on the cost that [is] broken down.

Q: Do you have anything else to add? As the new student trustee, what do you want to tell students?

A: I just want them to know that I am open to [them], even if they just want to give me an update on how life is going for them at COD. I can be best reached at my email which is [email protected]. I am very responsive to emails. I have it on my phone. If I get an email, I’ll get a notification about it, and I’ll be able to reply very quickly. But, yeah, I just want to get involved. I made a little Instagram page [@codstudenttrustee]. That’s also a way so if anyone wants to DM and say, ‘Hey I saw your post; college life is going good,’ or if they want to tell me about stuff they’re worried about at the college, or if they want to get connected in whether it’s for the center for accommodations, or if it’s just registration, cashiers office, police service desk, I can [guide them] that way to where they need to be.