Highlighting his status as a student government outsider, Luke Cheatham said he will be a different kind of student leader by putting students’ views, rather than the University administration’s views, first.
“For the past three years, student leaders have had great working relationships with administration. But what has that gotten us? Nothing,” said Cheatham, a senior civil engineering major. “I hope at the end of my tenure I can say I butted heads with the administration a few times, because that means I’m doing my job.”
Forceful and constructive advocacy will, in the long run, be more effective with University leaders than the blind cooperation of past student leaders, Cheatham said. His leadership of Unity Project’s off-campus bonfire last fall demonstrates he can get things done, Cheatham said.
Bonfire should eventually return to campus in a modified form that preserves the key elements of camaraderie, leadership and student involvement, Cheatham said. He added that he would support an off-campus bonfire next fall if it was strongly supported by the student body.
Cheatham said he will bridge the communication gap between students and their representatives by being more accessible.
“I won’t just sit in Koldus (Student Government Association offices) and go to lunches with administrators,” he said. “I will still live on Northside, and I will still eat at Sbisa.”
Diversity initiatives at A&M have stalled because of a “separatist” attitude that isolates ethnic groups from each other, Cheatham said. Sending international students to Fish Camp, rather than the I-Week orientation and merging some of the different mentoring programs targeted at specific groups would demonstrate that the unity of the Aggie family transcends cultural differences, he said.
Vision 2020 must also be reworked to include students’ perspectives, renewing an aborted attempt by the student government last year to formulate a student response to the University’s strategic plan, he said. Too many students believe Vision 2020 will pursue academic excellence at the cost of the school’s uniqueness–a perception problem that can be remedied through student input, Cheatham said.
Cheatham voted against the fee increases in the February referendum, and said student government failed to justify the fee hikes to students. Before students are saddled with tuition or fee increases, the University should first demonstrate that it has improved efficiency and cut expenses, he said