Celebrating 100 Days!

This Thursday, August 1st, officially marks the 100th day that I have served as University of Florida's Student Body President! While this hasn't been an easy job, it has certainly been the most significant thing I have been able to do during my time at UF.

While 100 days is just the start of my term, I do think that it is a reason to celebrate. In such a short time me along with my Vice President, Treasurer, Senate Executive board and agency chairs
have been working tirelessly to accomplish all the goals we embarked on just 100 days ago.

On Friday, August 2nd, we will be celebrating just this. We will have a table located in the Reitz Union Breezeway and we are asking that all students join us. We will have promotional items and flyers detailing some of the initiatives we have already accomplished for the year.

Importantly, we will also have a whiteboard for students to write ideas down of things they want to see this administration accomplish in its next 100 days. Hope to see everyone out there!

Me being sworn in as Student Body President

My Weekend with the Florida Student Association

This past weekend I had the opportunity to join several other State University System (SUS) Student Body Presidents at the most recent Florida Student Association (FSA) meeting in Jacksonville. 

The purpose of this meeting was to discuss several critical student issues and try to determine the best possible solutions for all Florida students. Being apart of FSA is significant because its Chairperson actually gets to serve on the Florida Board of Governors, allowing our interests to be directly represented.  

Currently I serve as the External Vice Chair which oversees the lobbying efforts of FSA and ensures all students’ voices are being heard in Tallahassee.

Items on our agenda included the feasibility of a four-year tuition freeze, sorting out the credit surcharge fees and CITF bonding. Additionally we discussed our D.C. Fly In and Rally in Tally, both events focused on lobbying our legislators on student issues.

I enjoy serving on FSA because it gives me a perfect forum to discuss the issues that UF students are having with other campus leaders who have dealt with similar things.

Members of the Florida Student Association

News From External Affairs: Senate Approves Stundet Loan Bill

One of the reasons I started this blog was to keep students as informed as possible. Below, see a press release from our External Affairs Chairwoman, Abby Whiddon. The release details an agreement the U.S. Senate has made in regards to student loans:

Washington, D.C.--The U.S. Senate has reached a bi-partisan agreement for a solution to student loan interest rate. The legislation approved Wednesday ties the loan’s interest rate to the market.

           Student Body President Christina Bonarrigo had told lawmakers that she hoped a long-term solution could be reached this year to give students financial stability and security, and is pleased with the bi-partisan solution.

            President Obama indicated he supported the bill’s passage early Wednesday, and in a later statement said, “This compromise is a major victory for our nation’s students.”

            The bill passed through the Senate by an 81-18 vote. It sets the 2014 fiscal year’s interest rate at 3.86 percent for undergraduate Stafford loans and 5.4 percent for graduate Stafford loans. To prevent unreasonable rates, a cap was placed at 8.25 for undergrads and 9.5 percent for graduates.

            The Senate’s version of the bill is likely to move to the House in the next week. Speaker Boehner said in a statement, “This bipartisan agreement is a victory for students, for parents and for our economy, and it is consistent with the House Republican bill passed in May.”

UF Utilizes D.C. Lobbyists

Recently topics in the U.S. Congress have had their roots in higher education. As the Student Body President for the state’s flagship university I believe that one of our duties as a Student Government is to represent our students in Washington, D.C. during this critical time.

In 1992, SG established External Affairs, an agency charged lobbying on behalf of UF students. Since 2012, the External Affairs agency has been aided in lobbying efforts through the help of the professional lobbying firm, Cardenas Partners.

Cardenas helps us reach out to officials allowing us opportunities to defend against loan rate hikes, protect Pell Grants, provide education benefits to our large student veteran community and fight for STEM visas.

This week the Huffington Post even published an article titled, “University of Florida Students’ Lobbying Firm Helps Put Issues In Front Of Congress.” The article describes how and why professional lobbyists are important to us.

Additionally, if you are interested in helping impact the State University System (SUS), there are many jobs in D.C. open for you to consider. One in particular is as a Fellow for the SUS. Responsibilities range from attending hearings and bill markups to arranging and organizing meetings in Congressional offices.

Remember just because Gainesville is a long way away from Washington does not mean that our efforts and opinions do not matter!

Tobacco Free Florida Awards UF

Congratulations Gator Nation! This morning in the Murphree Courtyard UF’s Department of Housing and Residence Education was officially recognized as the first establishment to be designated with Tobacco Free Florida’s Smoke-Free recognition.

Tobacco Free Florida is a campaign administered through the Florida Department of Health. Its goal is to create these smoke-free areas across the state in hopes that residents will quit or be deterred from starting the use of tobacco products. Additionally, the campaign seeks to educate those on the dangers of second hand smoke.

While UF deemed itself a Tobacco-Free campus just a few years ago, this award serves as a great reminder that we are moving in the right direction. Cutting smoking out of the residence halls was recognized by the university as the only way to produce the smoke-free environment that we desired.

With 12 residence areas housing about 7,800 students, this was no small feat! Days like today make me incredible proud to represent University of Florida’s student body!

The Value of Internships

Looking back on my time as an undergraduate, I have realized that one of the greatest experiences I was able to receive was through an internship I had with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Washington, D.C. 

Through my internship I learned how to act appropriately in a professional setting, write memos and briefs of meetings for circulation, network with people of diverse backgrounds and manage my work efficiently.

Although I am only at the beginning of my term as Student Body President I can already see how valuable the lessons I learned during my internship really are.

At UF we have many services, which can help you secure your perfect internship too. A great place to start is at the Career Resource Center located in the Reitz Union. The CRC can help you write cover letters, adjust your resume and match you with internships and jobs in your preferred field.

A new place to check for internships around Gainesville are in Facebook groups. The “Jobs & Internships” group is an example of a group which exists within Florida and is restricted to posting by those with valid Gatorlink emails, therefore this group is mostly student run and boasts new  postings every few hours spanning a variety of fields.

The value that internships can add to an undergraduate education are innumerable. Just yesterday, I spotted an online article from Sunshine State New stressing just this. To read this story, click on the following link, http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/college-students-who-served-internships-more-attractive-employers.

You never know who you will meet during your internships!
I had no idea I would ever meet Richard Gere!

Lets Hop 4 A Cure!

This weekend UF students have the opportunity to be apart of something special, so special that it might even break a WORLD RECORD!

Sunday, July 21^st, the UF M.S. Hopscotch “Hopping 4 A Cure” Hopscotch Tournament for Multiple Sclerosis will take place at the Broward recreation center and they are hoping to draw their biggest crowd yet!

The event put on by UF’s Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA), costs $5 for admission and $15 to participate in the main hopscotch event. Admission includes food and other fun games such as foursquare, basketball and hula hooping.

Proceeds from the event will go towards college scholarships, caregiver support and alternative medical research for those afflicted with M.S.

This is a great event and I hope that everyone comes out for it so we can all be apart of this record-breaking fundraiser! Lets get hopping!  

Ran into some of the directors for this weekends event! So excited for them! 

Business Spotlight: ALTR

For today’s post I would like to kick-off a series of spotlights that we will be doing this year on local and start-up businesses. This first business features a Gator product, one I believe many people will enjoy!

While pursuing her MBA at UCF, Alexandra Gramatikas first proposed her business plan as a part of an annual Entrepreneurial Joust Business Plan Competition. Her company, based off of the winning plan for this competition and started with the prize money, is named ALTR.

ALTR carries button covers, which allow you to actually ALTR your garment. The company is UF licensed and does carry a UF-themed cover.  With this product, any garment can instantly be changed into Gator-garb, no need to buy a separate Gator-themed shirt.

This is a great idea and something that really can make life easier come gameday when everyone is always scouring their closets for orange and blue!

Get 10% OFF using code: ALTRNATION!

My History With Sports

Growing up, athletics was something that was always very important to me and still is to this day.

In high school, I played both softball and basketball. While in college, I was able to keep playing through RecSports’ intramural programs. I have participated as a member of Zeta Tau Alpha’s soccer and basketball teams as well as Senate’s softball and kickball teams.

Being a part of so many sports teams I have learned to be a team player. I have learned how to help focus the goals of many and work with individual talents in order to accomplish one goal, a skill that has aided me here in my work as a Student Senator and now as Student Body President.

Tomorrow, I will be competing in Senate’s first annual philanthropy, Spike It With Senate! While I’ve never played volleyball, I am excited at the opportunity to play alongside my peers and have fun doing it!

Celebrating The New Fiscal Year With A Guest Blog

The new fiscal year for the University of Florida Student Government began on July 1^st with our main program Docutraq opening this past Monday. Because of this, I thought I would ask Student Body Treasurer Jayce Victor to update us. See below what he has to say:

I am excited to announce that the updated version of Docutraq was launched on July 1st for our campus and is now open and ready for students to submit Student Activity Request (SAR) forms and Travel Request (TAR) forms.

Student Government Finance has been working diligently throughout the year and during the summer to ensure that Docutraq is student friendly. Some of the new features on Docutraq include pie charts that allow student leaders to view the encumbered and unencumbered amounts within their budgets for this new fiscal year.

Additionally, SG Finance has added new "check points" in Docutraq to ensure that student groups have the available balance within their budget before processing the SAR and TAR requests. Docutraq will also run faster than it did before! 

I will be holding an additional Docutraq training session during the SAI/SG Finance training that will take place for all student organizations in the fall, so look out for more information on that.

If you have any questions, please contact me, Treasurer Jayce Victor at treasurer@sg.ufl.edu. For updates on important date and information, also check out my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/UfStudentGovernmentTreasurer

Communicating With SG

One of the major Student Government goals over the last few semesters has been to increase communication and transparency between the student body and itself.

As Student Body President I have made this a goal of mine as well through efforts such as this blog and my new Twitter account, @UFSBPrez.

SG also offers several different media for sending out their messages. Almost every SG entity from Cabinet to the Student Senate and to the different agencies, have Facebook pages and most also have Twitter accounts. Additionally the SG page, SG website and SG Twitter account provide offerings and updates from all of these branches.

As apart of the continuing effort to improve on this, we would like to know how you prefer to receive your news. Take the poll on the side to let us know. 

Lunch on the Lawn Event This Thursday!

I am pleased to announce that this Thursday, July 11^th, will be my next Lunch on the Lawn event!

You are cordially invited to join me along with other SG officials for this event, which will be taking place between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. in the Reitz Union Breezeway (due to construction).

 I created this event as a way to better reach out to students and really hear what issues they are having on campus. My goal is always to keep students in mind and I believe that this event provides a fun and laid-back environment for this.

Additionally, this event also serves as a great opportunity for students looking to get involved with SG to learn how from SG officials themselves.

Food will be provided, so even if you are in a hurry, be sure to come by and grab a cold drink or stay for a sandwich from Subway!

Happy Fourth of July!

Wishing all Gators and friends a happy Fourth of July today! Today we celebrate the birth of our great country and the values our founding fathers created to truly make this country the land of the free and home of the brave. Go Gators and Go America! 

Notes From The Annual SG Lobbying Trip

Last week I was given the opportunity to represent all Gators in the annual Student Government lobbying trip in Washington, D.C. While there, we chose four main issues that we believed to be of great importance to all students to discuss with several members of the U.S. Congress. Below is a summary of the main issues we discussed and why:

• Student Loan Interest Rates Although the rates of Stafford loans did double on July 1^st, while on our trip we urged legislators to work towards a solution because of how critical a raise like this can be to students. University of Florida alone has 85% of its students receiving financial aid and approximately 24,798 students who depend on federal funds.

• Pell Grants The Pell Grant program has been protected from cuts but only through the 2013-2014 school year. We urged legislators to continue protecting this program.

• STEM Visas More and more foreign students are graduating from STEM fields but after graduation cannot obtain a visa to stay in this country and work. On this topic, we explained to legislators how important expanded access to these visas is for our students.

• G.I. Bill Tuition Fairness Act (H.R. 357 and S. 257) This Act allows veterans to get in-state tuition rates even if they are not residents of those states in which those schools are located. To honor our veterans, we encouraged legislators to pass this Act.  

Tips For A Successful Summer B

Welcome to Summer B! Like many of you, I started my class yesterday. As the summer begins, I am looking back on some of the things that I have learned over the years and things, which I think will help make your summer great! If you have anything to add, be sure to comment down below!

-You don’t need to buy your books from a bookstore- Look around, check online and look through Facebook groups such as UF Textbook Exchange and you are bound to find the best deals.

-Stay dry. Although that can be tough, an umbrella is a must. Rain jackets and rain boots are also great investments, which can last even beyond your college years

 -Get involved! Summer is the perfect chance to join that club you were interested in during the fall or spring but never had time to check out.

-Remember to stay safe. Although there are less people on campus, always make sure to walk with a friend at night and utilize things such as SNAP and Gotcha.

-Keep cool. Gainesville can rise to unbearable temperatures, so be sure to hydrate and visit places like Lake Wauberg frequently for a dip.

-Explore the campus. Summer is a great time to discover something at the Florida Museum or the Harn or find that awesome new study space you’ve been looking for!

-Enjoy the city. Gainesville has many natural areas that can make fun day-trips. While you have the extra time this summer, take a ride over to Paynes Prairie or Devil’s Millhopper and see what these places are all about.