There are two main branches of on-campus student government at Keene State: Student Assembly and Student Body. Both branches offer a number of roles and positions that students may run for, including Student Body President, a role currently held by sophomore Josh Alsaad. The Equinox sat down with Alsaad to get a better understanding of his position and what the Student Body is currently up to.
Alsaad ran for student body president in the previous academic year and described it as “the face of the Student Body.” He provided some background on how he stepped into the role.
Alsaad said, “During my freshman year, I was the class vice president. I liked how things were going, and I thought I might as well go for the president position, and I got it. That’s one of the perks of going to a smaller college, I think; opportunities like this are a lot easier to get here than at a bigger school.”
Alsaad said the Student Body is currently struggling to find people interested in running for a position. He said, “[Getting people to run] is probably the biggest issue we’re having in Student Government right now. People probably would be interested, but they’re having a hard time finding out about what we do as Student Government; they don’t really know the structure of it that well.”
“It’s a hard thing to manage,” Alsaad continued. “I remember during the presidential search committee I talked about how current students are being neglected in terms of advertising for events and funding for events compared to the marketing geared towards newer students that are trying to get into the college. I feel like we as current students are being neglected because we don’t really know about these things, and then afterwards it’s like, ‘Oh, I just saw the email, and I wish I ran for this or did that.’ Right now I believe Student Assembly is allowing people to join even after the elections are run as long as they are elected within the assembly itself and the members agree to it, so if anyone is interested in that they can definitely reach out to me and I can get them in contact with the right people.”
Alsaad also spoke about the positions within the Student Body that are currently filled. “Right now, there’s the Student Body president and vice president. Vice president is a very versatile role. You can pretty much do whatever the president wants them to do; if the president is not there, they can fill in for the president. There’s also the student body trustee; these are basically the Keene State representatives to USNH. Every month or so they go to Concord with the [USNH] Board of Trustees and talk to them, and they have a vote,” he said.
“Then you have the Student Assembly roles, which is another branch of student government,” Alsaad said. “These people do a lot of stuff; they help with planning campus events, they have committees like the budget committee. All clubs on campus get their budget approved directly by them. They also have certain sways and other things, but right now it’s quite low on members. They’re trying to get that started up.”
Alsaad believes there are three big reasons why students may feel reluctant to apply for a Student Government role. He said, “Firstly, they feel like it’s going to be more competitive than it actually is. They think like, ‘oh, I don’t want people to know that I ran and then lost this,’ or something like that. Meanwhile, it’s like [the Body and Assembly] desperately just want more members and people to get there.”
“I would say the second reason is that it just isn’t really advertised well,” Alsaad continued. “The only thing they really send out is a few emails and some posters. I did events going to first-year halls, campaigning for the election, trying to get people interested in the elections, just to run for themselves. And then I would say the third reason is [students] don’t really know what the roles do, so they don’t really know if they would be interested in those roles.”
In regard to what Alsaad and the rest of the Student Body are working on right now, Alsaad said that they’re dedicated to planning the upcoming Pumpkin Palooza event. He said that the Student Body and KSC Dining staff met to decide on the event’s menu, which may have more variety than previous years.
“We have to get t-shirts ready; we have to meet with people to get the rides [on campus]. We have a form out right now to any clubs or student bodies that want to have a table at the event. It’s a whole thing, and we pretty much do the brunt of it, I would say.”
Speaking to students that may be thinking of joining Student Body or Assembly, Alsaad said: “Do it.”
“You only live once; you want to live without regrets,” he said. “People underestimate how good of an opportunity it is. If you’re going to grad school or planning to further your education, they’re gonna see that you were a part of these organizations and see it as a plus. They’re gonna be like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re involved in the community, they have a leadership position, they have hours in this; this might give them the edge to get into the school they want.’
For jobs, there are statistics on it, too. It helps a lot.”
Anyone interested in learning more about student government can contact Josh Alsaad at josh.alsaad@keene.edu or check out @keenestategov on Instagram for information on upcoming events.
Serena Taylor can be contacted at
staylor@kscequinox.com
