The Daily OrangeVeteran SA member focuses on current and long-term student needs
By Bethany Bump
Posted: 11/9/09, 3:29 AM EST Section: News
Jon Barnhart starts each of his committee meetings with a YouTube video, what he calls his "video of the week." He said he knows it drives current Student Association president Larry Seivert crazy, but that's how he likes to start things.
"I know we're all here to work hard, and I know everybody will work hard, but it's so much easier to work hard when you're laughing, smiling and having a good time along the way."
Barnhart, SA's current Student Engagement Committee chair, describes himself as professionally laid back. And it's this quality that he thinks would set his administration apart from Seivert's if he were to be elected SA president.
The junior political science and international relations major was a resident advisor in Shaw Hall his sophomore year. He helped to establish Class Alliance and considered running for president of that community service organization.
But there was no clear defining moment for him. There was no one moment that convinced him he would soon run for president of SA.
There didn't need to be. Barnhart said he always saw himself holding a leadership role at Syracuse University.
"It was an accumulation of things. It was realizing that I could build the Student Association around the ideas that are coming from the students. I could build the Student Association around what people are telling me," he said. "I had to give this a try.
"It was kind of about last year that I decided, you know, there's a chance I could do this. Or, there's a chance I could do this better than Larry."
Barnhart praised Seivert's professional, hands-on approach, as well as the increased interest he brought to SA over the year. But Barnhart said he'd run things a little differently.
"I'm comfortable delegating tasks to people and seeing that they get taken care of in the way that we're looking to get them taken care of," he said.
In developing his platform, which focuses on a broad range of student issues from safety to MayFest, Barnhart hasn't shied away from lofty goals. He wants to set the stage for lock-in tuition, for example, where what a student pays for tuition freshman year is what they will pay all four years.
"I know we're all here to work hard, and I know everybody will work hard, but it's so much easier to work hard when you're laughing, smiling and having a good time along the way."
Barnhart, SA's current Student Engagement Committee chair, describes himself as professionally laid back. And it's this quality that he thinks would set his administration apart from Seivert's if he were to be elected SA president.
The junior political science and international relations major was a resident advisor in Shaw Hall his sophomore year. He helped to establish Class Alliance and considered running for president of that community service organization.
But there was no clear defining moment for him. There was no one moment that convinced him he would soon run for president of SA.
There didn't need to be. Barnhart said he always saw himself holding a leadership role at Syracuse University.
"It was an accumulation of things. It was realizing that I could build the Student Association around the ideas that are coming from the students. I could build the Student Association around what people are telling me," he said. "I had to give this a try.
"It was kind of about last year that I decided, you know, there's a chance I could do this. Or, there's a chance I could do this better than Larry."
Barnhart praised Seivert's professional, hands-on approach, as well as the increased interest he brought to SA over the year. But Barnhart said he'd run things a little differently.
"I'm comfortable delegating tasks to people and seeing that they get taken care of in the way that we're looking to get them taken care of," he said.
In developing his platform, which focuses on a broad range of student issues from safety to MayFest, Barnhart hasn't shied away from lofty goals. He wants to set the stage for lock-in tuition, for example, where what a student pays for tuition freshman year is what they will pay all four years.
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