by Rachel Rippetoe |
The quiet side of The Commons was sparse Monday night for the Spring 2016 State of Campus address.
The senators and Executive Board, who had just been discussing by-laws in Shiley Hall at their weekly ASUP Senate meeting, filled up about two and a half tables. I had a table to myself at the front, facing the podium.
As if waiting to see if more students would appear, ASUP President Anthony Ng took to the podium at 6:36 p.m.
Elected less than a month ago, Ng was in the position of reporting on progress that he hadn’t wielded. He also attempted to spin a semester’s worth of internal, organizational challenges into a step forward for the student body.
Ng did this with gratitude and a hopeful attitude toward the future.
The president emphasized the University’s need to adapt to growth, as growing pains seem to be at the helm of all of UP’s issues.
Ng honed in on how the University and ASUP have successfully adjusted, no matter how long it took. He centered on recent improvements to the Health Center.
After a year of continuous complaints, UP’s Health Center hired another nurse practitioner, doubling appointment availability, Ng said. The center is continuing to improve as it shifts its focus to mental health. Ng emphasized that health services is in the process of hiring a new psychologist and an early alert program coordinator.
The second success Ng acknowledged gave a nod to The Beacon’s influence on campus. The junior devoted a whole slide to the "Community Engagement on Racial Inclusion" panel happening at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the Mehling Ballroom. Ng believes it was a direct response to The Beacon’s article on racial disconnect on campus.
The junior environmental science major did prescribe a clear change in one area on campus: sustainability. As he discussed the University’s five-year strategic plan, Ng implored the campus to hire a paid sustainability coordinator position to administration.
After thanking various members of student leadership, including members of the ASUP Executive Board for their hard work throughout the year, Ng finally addressed the elephant in the room: the semester of internal Senate challenges.
Ng recognized that ASUP had been “internally focused” for most of the semester. Yet, in keeping with the speech’s overall tone, he focused on the positives.
He gave ASUP Vice President Grace Holmes credit for taking over the presidency while a special election was held. He nodded to senators John Akres and Annie Rodriguez for their reworking of the ASUP Constitution. Ng spun the conflict into a web of progress: a result of ASUP’s own growing pains inevitably leading to its future success.
The anomaly of Ng’s fetal stages of presidency helped him make this year-end address an optimistic one. Even though the year is ending, Ng is just beginning and, in his eyes, so is ASUP, as is UP.
He ended on a quote from Officer Judy Hopps from the recent Disney flick "Zootopia": “Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with all of us.”
Rachel Rippetoe is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at rippetoe18@up.edu.
