Student Government Association President-elect Mike Keller made a bold move by choosing to have UnoBlessed Coons serve another year as the vice president of diversity programming, but it is a decision that I believe will benefit R.E.A.C.H. and Butler University.
This appointment seemed to me, at first, contrary to what Keller said during his campaign about bringing in new faces.
However, according to Keller, a vast majority of the SGA executive board will be made up of new members.
Nothing is wrong with keeping veterans around.
Heck, even Robert Gates was kept on as secretary of defense when Barack Obama took over the presidency.
I have not seen a large presence from R.E.A.C.H. this year, and I would like to see a lot more events and visibility in the future.
Coons took over after the original vice president stepped down.
Despite Coons’ disadvantages, Keller seems to have confidence in her capabilities.
“It was not so much other candidates were lacking something, but Uno has had a full year of knowing how to do the job,” Keller said. “She’s already had a trial-and-error period that previous members of exec board did not have. I want to see what Uno can do with a full term.”
Taking over as vice president of diversity programming last September made the job difficult.
However, she made sure that the events that had already been planned actually happened, Coons said.
“I hope that everyone continues to have high expectations for us and that we can have a more prominent presence on campus,” Coons said. “I’m excited to come up with new ideas on how to celebrate diversity and to have more conversations on diversity.”
I believe that Keller is a man with ambitions and that Coons is a woman who has a great deal of potential with a second year as vice president of diversity programming.
Together they can do great things to push diversity forward on Butler’s campus, something that this university desperately needs to embrace.