CONNOR HOFFMAN
Special to The Leader
Connor Hoffman: So, what attracted you to the Student Association?
Jefferson Dedrick: That’s a good question. Well, I got involved with the student association right out of the gate my freshman year. I was one of the only two freshman reps to be in the election. Meghan Bartok, who is now our president — the president of the sophomore class — and I were the only two involved right out of the gate, although now we have a lot more participation which is great. I have always been interested in student governance and giving students a voice. I served on the student council at my high school, Allegany Limestone. I was the executive president my senior year and within a plethora of other positions throughout that. I’ve served on committees all over the United States. I’ve traveled to Nashville to Maryland participating as this youth voice this student voice. What it is, I really love giving word to other peoples’ thought, and being able to be a resource to people, and that’s what I see the Student Association — as we’re a resource for students who want to talk to the administration and the community, a resource for groups that are trying to give our campus an array of wonderful activities and being right in the thick of that is what I love.
CH: What attracted you to the leadership positions, such as speaker of the assembly and freshman class president?
JD: I started off as freshman class president and then I resigned that when I was appointed assistant speaker and then later I was elected speaker by the reps of the assembly. I mean, I already told you everything about how I absolutely love being involved. In the leadership positions there is a lot more facetime with students, to be able to interact with students. So, as a rep and as president we had our meetings. We were in the general assembly meetings, and we had some interactions with students. But, as speaker, on a daily basis I have folks coming in and talking with me, conversing with me, asking questions, and within that position I’m able to work with a lot of clubs and see the fruition of my work and the wonderful things that they do for our campus. I think that president is kind of the next step up from that — that it is literally the face of the association — is our president. The more interaction with administration, with students, with groups and leading the Student Association is something that excites me a lot.
CH: What makes you feel that you are the right student for the job?
JD: That’s a good question. Well, I’ve been in a lot of positions like this so I have a lot of experience working with people of all sorts, of different diversities from all over the United States, even all over the world; I went to a conference and interacted with people from all over the world. So, I have a lot of exposure to working with administrative folks, working with students that are concerned, working with people that are different to me. I’m a white protestant male so it doesn’t get more un-diverse than me, that [I] am kind of what people affiliate with the institution and the lack of diversity. But I’ve had a lot of conversation and a lot of experience that I think allows me to reach out to people, be friendly to everyone. I think I connect with people very easily.
CH: Do you think, as a sophomore, you will be able to handle the biggest responsibility in the association?
JD: Absolutely, and I don’t think that my class defines me as a student at Fredonia. I love our campus and I’m involved with it — sometimes above my head — sometimes I get too involved. Its not that I’m a sophomore … I love our campus and I interact with students, faculty, administration on a day-to-day basis and I absolutely love that. I don’t think that I’m a sophomore will hinder me in any way.
CH: What made you pick Alexis Phillips as your VP?
JD: That’s a really good question. So Alexis is, I think is, the compliment to me or perhaps I’m compliment to Alexis. I first met her at the GA day when we made the budgets for all of the constituted groups and the GA budget for the student association. I met her on that day, March 29th of last year, and she came up to me and started asking questions about what was going on and what it meant and what the implications were to S.T.E.P.S. I was really impressed that she came forward and asked me as a person sitting at the front of the table — you know, we were kind of intimidating — that she came forward and had a conversation with me. And then later this year, she is also the treasurer of S.T.E.P.S., so at the beginning of this semester S.T.E.P.S,. missed a general assembly meeting which is required for all constituted groups, They have to be at all meetings. And she led me a very professional phone call apologizing and asking what S.T.E.P.S. could do to kind of fill that up and I starting talking to her more and more and I found out her ideas about what the student association should be matched very closely to my own. Again she’s the treasurer of a major constituted group on campus so she has a lot of experience with the groups. I have some experience with being an e-board member but she has a lot more and I really think that bringing that into the vice presidency is part of it.
CH: What are some of the main things that President Regulier and Vice President Blake have started that you disagree with?
JD: That’s a tough question. I think that President Regulier and Vice President Blake have done a pretty good job of running the student association. I think in the midst of everything else that they do, they have devoted as much time as they can. I think there’s some frustration in communication that I want to see done differently. Not necessarily that they “did-it-bad” difference — not bad — just different, but I disagree with [it] because I think it needs to be run just a different way. I think that the president should not only be going to meetings and interacting with administration but really going group to groups, talking with groups, seeing what they think. That’s nothing against Antonio; Antonio has a lot on his plate so it would be very hard for him to do and I think that’s something I would like to do differently as president.
CH: So, just to elaborate a little bit on that you think, he should talk to the groups a little bit more. I’m just a little confused as to what you mean frustration in communication.
JD: Again it’s nothing against Antonio; it’s just something I would like to do differently personally. I think there needs to be more communication between groups, people who are sitting on all these different committees and talking to the administration and the community and giving them the student input, the president, students in general. I think there could be a lot more conversation going on than there is now. This is kind of a behind-the-scenes, bureaucratic thing. I think that some of the things that are being said in the conversations, we have appointees. To the FSA board of directors, although Antonio serves on that, student affairs, academic affairs — all these committees — we have student input on don’t necessarily connect with Antonio or the clubs. They’re kind of serving as this as this individual entity and they say, to the best of their ability, what they think the students will think. I think there can be more communication between the president and those people and the president and the groups to bring everyone in on that conversation.
CH: So how do you plan on improving relations between the Student Association and the clubs?
JD: Communication is key. For the next month Alexis and I are going to try to go around to as many groups as possible to be in conversation with them about what they like about the student association, what they dislike, what they would like to see done differently, what they would like to see kept the same and from that we’re going to develop what we’re going to do in office. I think the big thing is conversation we need to bring everyone on the same page. What we would like to focus on including what we discern from groups. We like to focus on not making these huge sweeping changes to the student association. We don’t want to promise things we can’t deliver on these big programs we couldn’t possibly do in a year. We want to look at the student association, what it does, what it does for groups, what it does for students on campus and we want to refine those. So we want to focus on what we have and making it better. And I think in doing that and part of that is part of improving conversation with groups and students and making sure our very easy to understand. Vice President Blake has been working on putting together a booklet that we can have outside for the groups on like how to get rerecognized, how to umm to request money, but I don’t think the answer is more paper that they have to read ya know the constitution is 160 pages. This booklet in itself would be paragraphs of how to do things. I mean I don’t think that is what we should do I think we should be there in the office to have conversation with them. And I think that to having shortened easy to understand material for folks to understand materials for folks to read if they can’t get in contact with us is the way to go. So again Alexis and I want to be looking at the student association on the whole and how we can refine it and how we can make it better for the groups and the students. How we can kind of reduce the bureaucracy of it and then we want to look at bringing everyone on the same page. So that the groups understand what they need to do and that’s easy to pass down from group eboard to group eboard and so the student association is on the same page and so the administration is on the same page. And then maybe after a couple of years after that people can look at adding more to the student association but I think that right now were a bit of a mess and we need to look at the student association seriously and think about how we can make it work better for the students and the clubs.
Alexis Interview
What attracted you to the student association?
Alexis: Ok so I’m in S.T.E.P.S. on campus and when I became the treasurer I dealt hand in hand with SA. So starting last semester going to meetings I was the SA rep for the group. It was actually the budget day that set it in for me that really wanted to get involved in this group and have a voice.
What made you decide that you wanted to run for VP with Jefferson?
Alexis: I think part of it is I would love to be involved in this way especially because a lot of groups have the impression that SA doesn’t help anybody, you know their this mythical creature that they don’t understand, and I would love to be a part of something that helps diminish that stereotype even if its a little bit. Also I love answering questions, I love being able to help people and I know what its like to be on an eboard and be frustrated and not know how to do this paperwork and not know how to do this. So I would love to be that outlet for groups to come in and get there questions answered and relieve their stress. I would love to be a part of that.
If you are elected VP what do you plan on doing differently than VP Blake?
Alexis: When Jefferson and I started talking about this we realized that the first thing we really had to do was realize what the group wanted. So we have already taken the first step going into group meetings, showing our faces, ya know putting a face to the name. So that way we’re opening the lines of communication. We want to make the student association more tangible for the groups. So that’s the first step were taking. They’re a lot of great things that are already in place in the student association . So rather than coming in and saying we’re going to change everything and do this and deliver free puppies we wanted to be able to have a campaign and have a plan that we can actually deliver on so we’re going to take the things that are already in place in SA and make them better and make them run smoother and more consistent so that way the groups have a better idea of what’s happening
Do you plan on continuing any of the programs VP Blake has started such as the GRIP program
Alexis: I do like the GRIP program and that’s an example of one of the things that’s already great already within in SA and just tweaking it and making it better.