Photo by Jackson Olsen
Student body president
wants to be remembered as tall, non-elitist
By Jackson Olsen
April 3, 2009 | As the snow begins to melt and the
school year begins to wind down, there is a noticeably
different air up on the third floor of the Taggart Student
Center.
The air of change.
The third floor of the TSC has long been the home
to the Associated Students of Utah State University,
USU’s student government. With the elections of new
officers three weeks ago and their upcoming inauguration
just two weeks away, the old council is preparing to
move on, pack up and move out.
Perhaps no one is more aware of this than Grady Brimley,
this year’s student body president. Brimley, the unlikely
candidate for president who last year made a come from
behind victory over two other favored candidates, can
hardly believe that his year at the helm of ASUSU is
virtually at an end.
“This whole year’s gone by and it just feels like
a dream,” Brimley said. “I can’t believe it went so
fast.”
Fast as it was, Brimley agreed to sit down with the
Hard News Café prior to his exodus and tell us more
about his year, his experience and his hopes for the
future.
HNC: Do you feel like this year was a success?
GB: Yes, because the one thing I wanted to use to
measure my success by at the end of the year was having
more people wanting to be involved in ASUSU, and the
amount of people who ran for ASUSU offices this year
showed that. Also, my goals were accomplished. We had
more accessibility between officers and student body,
bigger turnouts to events, we’ll have an internship
director next year and we’ll also have free parking
in the terrace next year after 6:00 p.m. on weekdays.
HNC: What was something that you wanted to accomplish
that you didn’t?
GB: I was hoping that the web site would be a bigger
success, and that more students would have used it to
learn about what was going on around campus. We had
some problems with the web site and it never really
caught on this year. I’ve asked my successor to take
it on, and hopefully he will. HNC: If you could go back
and do the year all over again, what would you do differently?
GB: I would have played more pingpong. I mean, I like
being busy, and being involved in a lot of things, so
for me that’s fun. But I probably could have made more
time to just relax and play a little pingpong.
HNC: Do you think the Athletic Fee increase will be
a black eye on your presidencyl?
GB: No I don’t, because for one, I didn’t make the
decision the students did. As a council, we decided
to turn it over to the students because it was such
a big fee being requested. Ten years from now, I think
that most people will be happy that the fee was raised
and that we have a quality athletic program. HNC: What
words of advice did you give your successor?
GB: To fight to keep the student activity fee the
same and to not ask for an increase. It’s easy to find
reasons to ask for an increase, but it’s also totally
possible to work things out so that the students don’t
have to pay more.
HNC: How do you hope to be remembered?
GB: Taller than I am. Good leaders are always known
to be tall and I’m really short. Also, that I wasn’t
cliquey and that I didn’t buy in to an “elitist ASUSU”
mentality. That I thought like a regular student thinks
and that I approached problems like a regular student
would approach a problem.
RM |
