Letter to the Editor: Re: Paul Clayton’s letter, “A TU Nation victory” from the April 26 issue

Dear Editor,

I’m writing today in response to a letter you ran last week [“Re: TU Nation victory”]. As someone who was named in that letter as well as the newly inaugurated Temple Student Body President, I feel there are some important issues that need to be addressed.

While I whole-heartedly disagree with Paul Clayton’s assessment of the TU Nation’s chances for success, I do agree that TSG needs to focus more on the concerns of all Temple students. That is why Elliot, Ugo and I were proud to work with Temple in sending almost 30 students to Harrisburg on April 26 to speak directly with legislators about how important Temple’s commonwealth funding really is. Paul, it was a tremendous opportunity to make a difference, I wish you could have made it.

Though Elliot, Ugo and I have only been on the job for two weeks, we’ve already met with a variety of administrators, including President Ann Weaver Hart, to share our platform ideas and how we can work together to make them a reality. So far, the administration has been more than receptive to our ideas and they’ve expressed their sincerest intentions to collaborate with Temple Student Government in the upcoming year.

Lastly, I just wanted to highlight the importance of student engagement. As student body president, the decisions I make don’t just affect the members of TSG, they affect all 39,000 Temple students. As much as I often hate to admit it, I don’t know everything. That’s why we need passionate people like Paul in student government, so that every student has a chance to make a difference. Thanks to our newly ratified constitution, Temple Student Government is now in a position to do that.

We can disagree, but we need to work together. So I encourage Paul and every student reading this to apply for one of the 15 open TSG positions at https://tunation.org/apply. We need your passion, we need your voices and most of all, and we need your help.

This is a difficult time for all Temple students. Let each of us do our best to make this upcoming year one for the record books.

Sincerely yours,
Colin Saltry
Student Body President