New SGA Student Engagement Board Provides Resources and Support for Students

Tomi Clark speaks on how the SGA Student Engagement Board started and how it’s here to help better the Butler experience for students. The following consists of interview highlights from Nov. 9, 2022.

Heidi Copple | hcopple@butler.edu

When you’ve walked through the first floor of Atherton Union, you’ve probably noticed the SGA executives sitting in the office right inside the main doors. This year the SGA office is home to a new position, Director of Student Engagement. 

The Student Engagement Board Director, Tomi Clark, became involved with this position in the Spring of 2022, during Cade Chezem and Meet Patel’s campaign. She helped with their multi-faceted campaign platform and assisted them with outreach initiatives and public relations.

From her positive experience of working with them and knowing them personally, she applied to the SGA Director of Student Engagement position. She strongly supported Cade and Meet’s vision for their presidency and wanted to help them succeed.

The Student Engagement Board was created to ensure Butler students have a confidential space where they feel their opinions are heard, appreciated, and supported. Since Clark is the first director, she’s had the chance to design its mission, vision, and goals with one priority in mind: to increase opportunities for students to voice their ideas, questions, experiences, concerns, and general feedback.

“Currently, our overarching goal is to help improve student life and experience at Butler, which includes playing a role in increasing SGA's presence on campus so that students know who they are represented by and how they can contribute to changes they want to see,” said Clark. This board is not limited to first-year students. Instead, it’s supposed to be utilized by the entirety of the student body. The Student Engagement Board is working hard to support all students and campus leaders. 

One of the main initiatives of the SE Board includes tabling, which occurs once every two weeks. At these events, SGA gives out free Starbucks vouchers and Insomnia Cookies, and students will have the chance to share their ideas and talk with SGA leaders. 

Another resource the SE Board has provided is the Uber service. Butler SGA partnered with Uber to give students fully-covered rides to Ascension St. Vincent Medical Campus, Indiana Youth Group, and the Julian Center. Additionally, the three days before and after scheduled holiday breaks, students get full transportation coverage to the Indianapolis International Airport and the Julia M. Carson Bus Transit Center. 

“The most beneficial part about being involved with the SE Board has been meeting so many incredible individuals and hearing their ideas, questions, experiences, concerns, and general feedback. In our effort to advocate for students and to help improve the overall student experience on campus, we take all of the feedback and create action items to address it,” Clark said. 

The SE Board is always open to feedback and wants to hear ideas from students. A great way to get involved is to share your thoughts in the Confidential Feedback Form. To stay updated with SGA campus events and campus events, follow along on the Social Calendar for updates.