Inside Student Government

By Zack Solomon

As a member of the NCAA Student Athlete Advisory Committee, I feel it is extremely important to be a leader in all aspects of your life. For me, that meant getting involved in my campus’ student government. Not only did I want to be a leader in the athletic realm of my college experience, but I wanted to be a leader to the entire student body.

During my first three years of college, I had very little knowledge of what student government did. As I started to learn more about their cause, I came to the realization that the student-athlete voice was not present in any shape or form in the student government structure at American University. Therefore, I made it one of my main priorities to have student-athlete representation in my school’s student government.

After unsuccessfully running for student government president - I lost by less than 100 votes - the incoming president created a position that oversaw all student/athletic areas, from varsity athletics to intramural sports. This opportunity has opened new avenues for me in terms of pushing the cause of student-athletes and students in general.

My experience in the student government in the past six months has allowed me to intertwine my responsibilities as president of our school's SAAC, to my role as Director of Athletics and Recreation for student government. Two experiences that I have had the pleasure to carry out in my position with the student government were to sit on the athletics committee for the Board of Trustees and to serve on the Campus Life, Athletics and Recreation Committee.

My insight as a student-athlete has helped both committees on numerous issues, including coming up with creative ways to raise school spirit and insight on what the American University should do to upgrade facilities to better the student and student-athlete experience at American University. If I were not involved with the student government, these opportunities probably would not have been available to me.