The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has its first two-term Whitewater Student Government administration in the school’s history. Headed by President Douglas Bradley and Vice President Parker Boehm, the administration credits its successes to their close friendship and constant commitment to student input and collaboration.
The administration emphasized the importance of communication and delegation between the president and vice president in accomplishing the school’s first two-term administration.
“We’ve taken this different approach of not always having both of us in the office,” Bradley said. “We have two different individuals who are highly specialized. I think that’s led to one of the reasons why we were reelected.”
One goal of the administration is honoring student input.
“A lot of what we work on is really dictated by what we’re hearing from students,” Bradley said. “What came back in our survey, whether it was dining, housing, parking, degrees, textbooks, students want a more affordable collegiate experience, and so, that’s something we’re going to tackle is, how can we make college more affordable? How can we remove barriers?”
The administration also emphasized the importance of cooperation with the chancellor.
“The reason I say that is because affordability is a priority of the chancellor as well,” Bradley said. “A lot of what we said in our priorities is reconfirming what the chancellor and his cabinet said we’re going to be working on. They recognize that fees are too expensive, we need to remain competitive in pricing and sometimes we are at the mercy of the state.”
Collaboration is a point of emphasis with this administration. Boehm emphasized how his experience as a university resident assistant has helped contribute to the administration’s goal of serving the student body.
“Being an RA, I’m a part of campus too,” Boehm said. “That was drilled into me right away, is making this a home away from home to enhance student retention and make them feel like this is a safe place that they can call their home. Right now, I’m working on doing some programming with different organizations to enhance that engagement, not only with us, so we can further our student feedback, but also that we can encourage other students to get involved in campus life too.”
The administration also highlighted its commitment to collaborating with Greek life, as it recognizes its accomplishments in increasing graduation and student retention rates. “You notice how engaged and involved the Greek community is and how that directly correlates with the retention rates and will lead to higher graduation rates as well as enhancing student success,” Boehm said.
“So, I think persistence, if we can put it in bite-sized manageable pieces from semester to semester, I want you to come back next semester,” Bradley said. “That’s how I got you to graduate. Everybody wants you to graduate. You want to graduate? I want you to graduate. That’s the goal of everybody on campus. So that’s why we’re looking at affordability and engagement. So, we can get folks to graduate in time by driving persistence.”
The administration explained how WSG is structured and provided background on how the election process occurs. WSG has a senate and an executive branch. The Senate has 23 members; three of those members are selected to be officers.
“We have a speaker who runs our meetings, a deputy speaker and a parliamentarian who’s really kind of our expert on standing rules, the constitution, things like that,” Bradley said.
The executive branch includes the president, vice president and cabinet, which includes five directors and a clerk.
“The Whitewater Student Government will always be here to support and to serve students,” Bradley said. “If you’re asking about how to join, there are always senate seats open. So, Monday nights at 7 p.m. is when we meet. Typically, you run for an appointment.”
The current administration is focused on increasing student input, increasing affordability, and cooperating with student organizations and the campus community. They expressed gratitude for this opportunity to serve and attributed their success to their close friendship.
“I think it stems back to, we’re buddies first,” Bradley said. “I think honored is the only word I can think of for being the first ever two-term administration.”
