The State of the Student Body Address is an annual speech given by the Student Body President. Its purpose is to update the Florida State community on the work that the Executive Branch has been doing and to talk about their plans for the future. This year’s address was given virtually by Student Body President Jonathan Levin. The president began by speaking about Florida State retaining its status as a Top 20 institution among national public universities, and then went on to comment on the historic activism and leadership shown by students in the past months.
Work of the Executive Branch
1. Recently, the Executive Branch has worked with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) and Tallahassee Community College (TCC) to conduct a series of conversations with the Tallahassee Police Department, the Mayor of Tallahassee, and the State Attorney. These talks centered around police violence and the recent protests in Tallahassee. The Executive Branch plans to be a part of all discussions about diversity-related policy changes. Their work so far includes:
a. Assisting with the development of a community app that will allow the user to start recording a police encounter with a voice command.
b. Working to implement police report cards that evaluate racial breakdown, use of force, and other metrics about the police force. These will be put on the FSUPD website within the next couple of months along with explanations of how they work and links to additional resources.
2. The Executive Branch assisted in establishing and implementing the University’s Covid-19 policy. They designed Pledge TLH to encourage students to follow social distancing guidelines.
3. They have been working to address issues related to Title IX and sexual assault. They have hosted campus meetings with student leaders, Greek life organizations, kNOw More, and the FSU administration. The purpose of these meetings was to discuss strategies for how to best solve these issues and educate students.
Future Plans
1. During last year’s elections, President Levin ran with a full plan of policies to implement. Because of the many developments of the past few months changes have had to be made and more goals have been discovered. An updated initiative tracker with SGA’s new platform points can be found on the SGA website here: http://sga.fsu.edu/initiative-tracker1.shtml
2. The Executive Branch will continue to support veteran and military-affiliated students through the Fallen Heroes’ ceremony, and by advocating in the Florida State Legislature.
3. They will be continuing to work with the Office of Business Services to improve Round-Up for FSU which gives customers at specific campus retail locations the opportunity to round-up their purchases to the nearest quarter (25¢). The difference is donated to the FSU Food for Thought Student Food Pantry.
4. The Executive Branch will work to build a cohesive, collaborative relationship with FSU Panama City Campus, FAMU, and TCC.
5. They will continue to visit one registered student organization per week. The form to request an Executive Board visit to your RSO meeting can be found here: https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0TgS82hYwpAMl49
6. Additional work will be done to provide more transparency through town halls and regular updates on the SGA website.
7. They will work to create further partnerships with direct support organizations such as Seminole Boosters. By doing so they hope to provide more giveaways and fundraisers.
8. They are assisting with the production of a joint community documentary that highlights the history of activism in Tallahassee.
9. Plans have been made to make a community calendar so the student body can be kept up to date on events around campus. You can find the SGA Community Calendar Instagram page @fsusgacalendar or here: https://instagram.com/fsusgacalendar?igshid=ywetuib3yxls
10. They will continue to build their relationship with the transportation and parking services with the goal of reducing parking issues.
11. One of their goals is to provide more access to CPR training and AEDs around campus through the Tom Project, which honors a member of Pi Kappa Alpha who died of a heart attack earlier this year.
12. The Executive Branch expressed that they will work to ensure marginalized communities are listened to. INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, recognized FSU as a Diversity Champion for the fifth year in a row. President Levin’s goal is to continue to be a nationwide leader in diversity efforts:
a. They will identify policy and institutional issues on campus and address them.
b. All Executive Branch members will attend diversity training.
c. A student representative will be put on the Mayor’s Review Committee.
d. Students will be placed on the police hiring board to ensure that the officers are there to protect and serve the community.
13. The Executive Branch will continue to work on improving the RISE UP organization which they created. Their goal is to be able to listen to the student body and propose policy solutions representative of their views.
14. They will continue their partnership with Bite Squad to provide discounts for FSU students.
15. The Mentorship Opportunity for Continued Academic Achievement program will be established in order to provide mentorship opportunities between graduate and undergraduate students.
The meeting ended with a call to action by President Levin for the student body to put aside their differences and unite together as FSU student leaders. He stated that the Executive Branch wants to hear any ideas and concerns that students have and that they intend to do the very best that they can regardless of the time and energy it takes. If you are interested in more information about this event, the full recording can be found on the FSU SGA Instagram and Facebook pages (@fsusga).
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