Executives remain close to campus, build connections

As students leave Bloomington for the summer, a few IU Student Association executives will remain on campus.

President and junior Michael Coleman said he will spend the summer working for IUSA and continuing to meet and build relationships with administrators.

The Btown administration had similar meetings last summer, and Coleman said he believes this helped the group make progress on the fall break initiative during its one-year term.

Coleman said he hopes building relationships with administrators of the Bloomington Faculty Council will help seal the deal.

Coleman said he also plans to meet with student organizations this summer.

He said leaders of the Residence Halls Association and Union Board have reached out and expressed interest in meeting. Coleman said he also hopes to develop plans with the Student Sustainability Council to tackle projects next year.

Finally, Coleman said he hopes to begin to facilitate talks between Dean of Students Pete Goldsmith and the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Association and National Pan-Hellenic Council. Coleman said these organizations have expressed an interest in having a forum with the dean.

Coleman said despite the fact that this isn’t technically IUSA’s responsibility, he is “just trying to make sure we are the liaison between them and the dean and all the administrators.”

Vice president for congress and junior Jen Peterson said she will spend her summer in Bloomington, improving technology in congress, filling open congressional seats and updating the congressional handbook.

Peterson said she is working with IUSA’s director of technology to implement a clicker system that would be used for representatives to vote and take attendance. She said this technology already exists at IU but has never been successfully implemented between legislative terms.

Another summer hurdle for Peterson will be filling congressional seats left open after the elections.

Students who ran as University Division or residence hall representatives will no longer be representing their constituency once they are accepted into a specific school or move off campus.

To that end, Peterson said she will be talking to freshmen and sifting through write-in candidates to determine if they are truly interested in serving in Congress.

Chief of staff and sophomore Neil Kelty will also spend part of the summer in Bloomington. Kelty said he and the other executives recently wrapped up interviews for the majority of staff positions.

“There were tons of good applicants; we just wanted to leave some room to grow next year to get some really involved freshmen so they could be involved for all four years.”

Vice president for administration and junior Peter SerVaas said the fact that Coleman, Peterson and Kelty will remain in Bloomington for the summer will be essential to their success as an administration.

“That’s something I think is either going to make or break a year for IUSA,” SerVaas said.