President Kylie Patterson plans a public service campaign, among others, for this year.
After a whirlwind semester — including a string of controversial speakers coming to Main Campus, a waiting game for state appropriations and a Senate president’s resignation — Temple Student Government and the student body are looking ahead to what the new year and new semester have to offer.
Looking back on last semester’s events, TSG President Kylie Patterson, a senior political science major, said she feels prepared for whatever happens this semester.
“I’m not going to say bring it, but I’ve learned that things are bound to happen, so you might as well prepare yourself now,” Patterson said. “It’s my last semester here, and I think we can really focus and do a lot.”
Patterson said she and TSG’s executive board are preparing to kick off their “Three Cs Campaign,” an initiative to raise students’ community service awareness through commitment, consistency and consciousness.
In addition, Patterson said, there are several changes she would like to make during the semester.
Among those changes are all three branches of student government working together to focus and reflect on what they need to do for the student body. Patterson also said she hopes to see student-senators be more involved in their colleges and with their peers.
Colin Saltry, who will replace Jeff Dempsey as TSG Senate president this semester, said he agrees that TSG needs to be more involved in student issues.
“Instead of just catering to one particular organization and one demographic of students, we need to go out there and see what other students are going through and be responsive,” Saltry said. “The reason we do that now is that there aren’t many people involved, and that’s one of the things we have to change.”
Saltry, a sophomore economics major, said he hopes to liven TSG’s meetings.
“We have to make our meetings, particularly Senate meetings, more interesting for everyone, especially those not involved,” he said. “People that aren’t involved get completely turned off by the process, and it’s even a few people in the Senate that are bored. I’m one of those weird guys that like [the] process, and I’m getting bored.”
Saltry said one obstacle to involving the student body with TSG is that the organization cannot throw parties.
“We can’t have any type of social events, whereas [Main Campus Program Board] can,” he said.
To overcome this, Saltry said he hopes to work with student organizations and provide funding for them to co-host events with TSG.
Sophomore political science and Jewish studies major Bryan Mann, who also serves as president of All Sides, said he would like to see the way funding for student organizations is handled changed.
“I would like organizations to get start-up funds through allocations for fundraisers, which they cannot currently,” Mann said. “I would also like to see the logistics of allocations work better. There have been many instances when organizations expected to get money and either had to come up with the money themselves, and then wait to be reimbursed, or couldn’t have the event due to lack of funds.”
Students for Environmental Action President Korin Tangtrakul said she had no big complaints about TSG.
“All we need [from TSG] is for them to continue to support the Green Fee and be there when it goes to the Board of Trustees,” said Tangtrakul a senior environmental studies and geography and urban studies major.
The one thing she said she would like to see is a change in the process.
“TSG works very bureaucratically,” she said. “Things always seem to go through a chain of command, and little happens.”
Joshua Fernandez can be reached at josh@temple.edu.
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