In an interview on Aug. 27 Kate Coulter, Student Body President and Ryan Durst, Student Body Vice President sat with student government correspondent George Burdick for an interview discussing a range of topics, from summer updates, to current plans and issues on the horizon. What follows are questions and answers from that interview, edited for clarity. 

What was the main focus of your administration this summer? 

Ryan Durst: “We had a good summer. We spent most of the summer meeting with just everybody, the best we can, all across campus. It was more of a kind of listening thing, like ‘Tell us what you guys do in detail? What are some challenges that you’re seeing on the horizon? What are ways that the student government can fit in?’ So as we go into this year, we can kind of build those relationships.”

Are there any major projects you’re currently working on? 

Kate Coulter: “So we actually have a couple projects in motion. The main one would probably be our intention with summer in starting out with going in and talking to all these campus entities and partners that we have, and seeing what they need from us and what we need from them, and kind of like just also putting face the name…and kind of start that relationship early on. That way, it’s also easier when we’re not only introducing ourselves, we’re also introducing our cabinet. And then there were two ideas that sprouted from my mind. I know that Bod Squad has been a thing, and so if you’ve seen Bod Nation anywhere, that is my doing. There’s also another thing that will come out in early September, called Bods Banquet. It’s another edition of the president’s round table, but more so focused on students…It’s more just an opportunity for students to connect, because I know that during Ryan and I’s campaign, we talked a lot about connection and making sure students feel connected to each other here at campus, but also supported.”

The Bod Squad or Bod Nation isn’t an organization name I’m familiar with – can you tell me more about where that falls in the organizational structure?

Kate Coulter: “Honestly, sometimes I think about it and I don’t even know where to place it. In partnership with Student Life, because Student Life is kind of supporting us right now trying to get the organization off the ground. It’s kind of like a Kate Coulter thing instead of a President Coulter thing, but I also like the idea of having WSGA pretty close to it. But right now, it’s basically Bod Squad, but it’s more structured: we’ll have themed games, we’ll have freebies in the student section, so there’ll be free face paint and free face tattoos and free legs and free kind of like, whatever is pertaining to the theme of the game. But it’s really a pilot, so depending on how this fall goes and how our football team does, we’ll determine how we proceed.”

What about the Bods Banquet?

Kate Coulter: “Bods Banquet is another idea I had. It’s a banquet that will hopefully become an annual thing, if not a semesterly thing, where we get student organization leaders together, and/or organization representatives. So it’s not like we’re asking all the presidents to be there, it’s like we’re sending messages out to the execs of these student organizations and asking them to send one to three representatives to come sit in at this dinner that we provide. And it’ll be guided questions to kind of start the conversations of, how can Washburn Student Government shape and support you? What are areas of campus that need to be addressed and supported? There’s an opportunity for recognition: so there’s a link to fill out a recognition form if you feel like your organization has said something great and they need recognition for it, then organizations can fill out that form and we’ll add it to the agenda.”

Now that the summer is over, what are the goals for your administration moving forward?

Kate Coulter: “So I guess I really don’t know what we’ll be tackling first. I do know that one thing that will be on the horizon for us this semester, in particular, is our seat situation. We are very excited, as our summer tabling went really well this summer, and we’ve also had a lot of interest in freshman elections….We did just open up our Special Events Committee, and Homecoming is now under them, so we’re hoping that that’ll be a success. That’s in partnership with Student Life.”

Ryan Durst: “Lillian Clark (Special Events Director for the Coulter/Durst Administration) answered a lot of questions about it. She felt she needed it. And that was one of the things that we initially talked about, we were like, ‘If you really need it, come to us and sit down and talk to us, tell us kind of why.’ And she had really good points.”

There have been recent talks about how student government should operate on campus: more events focused, or more policy and advocacy focused. Where does this Special Events Committee and Homecoming work fit into that?

Kate Coulter: “We want to support other student organizations and senators in what they’re working on. Moving that focus made it a little bit simpler whenever you have a special event. Not that the student organizations can’t plan events, it’s just like now we do have an event’s person, so I really want them planning the most events out of everyone here.”

There have been recent conversations around remodeling the Memorial Union and/or the Recreation and Wellness Center. Any updates to these plans? 

Kate Coulter: “So over the summer, one thing I forgot to mention was that we created this form that will go out by the end of this week, beginning next week. It’s nine questions, all of them are multiple choice. And basically you can go through just select areas of campus that need attention, focusing on the two main student areas: the student recreation center and the Memorial Union…So that form will go out, kind of just highlighting which building students think need more attention. Not that both are not important. Both are very important. But if WSGA wants to take on an initiative and support something, it’s probably better if we focus on one rather than both. But I definitely think that with the survey, we’ll be able to present to President Mazachek that student spaces do need attention, as well as academic spaces.”

I’ve got a couple issues students seem to care about that we’d like your opinions on. Firstly, lack of parking space on campus. Any plans to push for change?

Kate Coulter: “Parking! It is always a topic. I know I have thoughts about it, and it is something that the students talk about, are concerned with, complain about a lot on social media and other things, so I know this is also kind of an issue. But the thing is I don’t know what that looks like to expand parking on campus…Maybe there’s a way that we can implement some sort of system such that if you want to pay for a parking pass and parking reserved areas, and then there’s general parking. Maybe that’s an opportunity we could explore. But I do know that parking is a concern, but as of right now the student government is not doing anything actively to work towards that, but it’s definitely something in our minds.”

Ryan Durst: “I fully understand the frustration, because we get parking passes, but I haven’t gotten mine yet, and I park basically every day across the entire campus, and I walk here and it is frustrating. I think that there’s conversations that could be had and we’d be fully open to building upon those conversations and having more, but at the same time I do think that Kate is right. There’s a lot more to it than simply building more parking. There are others things that could come like having to pay for parking and I know that me, personally, I’m kind of veering away from that. So it’s like, how do you find that middle ground and have more parking? Where is that opportunity with that while also not making students pay for that parking?”

In addition to parking, there have been issues with housing this semester. As you know there is currently a waitlist for the dorms on campus, which impacts students–especially Freshman–in important ways. Thoughts on this issue?

Kate Coulter: “I know it’s in the president’s five year plan to expand housing. I do know that there’s a housing study that was conducted recently and they presented it to the Washburn Board of Regents…But a lot of that’s out of our control. I think we can definitely raise awareness to it and we do think it is important. Like, I haven’t lived off campus yet, actually! So I do think it’s important, but it’s also somewhat out of our control.”

So far this semester we’ve seen a lot more parties being thrown by people in Greek and Athletics spheres than we have in previous years. Are there any concerns about ensuring safety with the recent cuts to the Lyft program WSGA made last year?

Kate Coulter: “I think this stuff is something that we’ll have to keep a pulse on this year, because it is a new thing this year, as you said. So seeing if it actually holds or just, you know, first week of rush, right? So we’ll have to definitely see if we do end up making changes, but this is a senate decision, not a me decision. I would presume that it would just be an increase in dollar amount for rides instead of time limitations, because attack limitations do help us focus on the after hours celebrations.”

Ryan Durst: “The Lyft Program is a big topic of conversation. It has a lot of benefits, and it serves people very well. So we want to make sure before we do anything with it…that we have consistent communication with other people who want to use it, other people that know the financial piece of it, and get a full scope.”

Over the past couple months we’ve seen ICE raids move into Kansas, with a few happening in the eastern part of the State. What if they happen here?

Ryan Durst: “We are going to keep very close attention to it and keep up to date with it. In our positions, our job, our top priority is to listen and advocate for students on this campus…and so we have already been having conversations with a couple of different people on campus, with our advisors…and the upper administration has been genuinely, really good at talking to us about the background, what they’ve been talking about and things like that. They’ve been very, very open to communicating with us, and they’ve been willing to have conversations with us, which is great.”

Recent cuts at the Federal level have left public broadcasting networks without financial resources. Our own KTWU station on Campus has been impacted by these cuts, with potentially further decreases in funding by the State this next legislative session. Is there anything Student Government can do?

Ryan Durst: “We have not heard anything about it, I obviously knew that it was happening at the federal level…but that is a really good point that we should probably honestly talk about.” 

Kate Coulter: “I know the Mass Media department might go into detail…we’ll have more conversations.”

That’s about it, thank you both so much for taking the time to answer these questions.

Kate Coulter: “Of course.”

Ryan Durst: “Anytime.” 

Edited by Anushma Dahal and Bidhya Sapkota