Newly elected student leaders share vision for year ahead

New UND Student Body president and VP promise to ‘fight for students every step of the way’

Last Wednesday, Matthew Ternus and Kaelan Reedy were elected to be the University of North Dakota’s student body president and vice president, respectively. During the current academic year, Ternus served as vice president to President Gracie Lian, while Reedy was his chief of staff. Shortly after the election, in which they ran uncontested, UND Today chatted with them about their platform, their vision and their efforts to help students and the University adjust to a post-coronavirus higher education.

Ternus and Reedy will assume their new offices in early May.

The below conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

UND Today: Congratulations on your victory! What are your initial reactions?

Matthew Ternus, president elect: We saw some awesome energy with the student body, even amid COVID-19 and all the changes happening with distance learning. We still saw a decent turnout in terms of uncontested races, too. There were almost 700 votes total in the election. The last uncontested race, if I remember correctly, had around 500 or 600 votes, so we were right in line with that. We felt pretty good about that.

It was a fun day. Kaelan and I got to sit around and send out a lot of texts and calls, reminding people to vote, rallying the team. We had a team of around 70 volunteers. We got the phone call of the results around 6 p.m. We got to have a big Zoom call with our supporters, which was a lot of fun. In years past, the announcements were all made at a central location, where teams gathered to celebrate. This year, the fact that we were all able to meet via Zoom still was a lot of fun. I think a lot of people liked that.

What do you attribute that energy to?

Kaelan Reedy, incoming vice president: I would attribute the energy to the idea of positive student leadership, positive change. A lot of the energy came from our volunteers. They really carried a lot of the excitement through the students. But the platform points that we’ve put forward are both a continuation and an update of those that were put forward by the Lian-Ternus campaign last year. That is a campaign which focuses on a more tight-knit community, on making the state as a whole better, and on working with the Greater Grand Forks community and hosting more exciting events for students.

Talking about your platform, can you break it down for readers?

Ternus: Our slogan was “We are One Campus, One Community and One North Dakota.” “One Campus,” echoes the campaign and the work that Gracie Lian, outgoing student body president, and I as vice president have done, continuing to build up programs and initiatives on campus that better the students. These include access to free menstrual products on campus, vending machines, Open Educational Resources. Kaelan and I want to expand on a lot of things that are going to improve student life.

The “One Community” aspect involves working with city leaders, finding ways to get students downtown more. We have a great downtown space that a lot of students who aren’t 21 or older may think has nothing to offer them.  But there’s plenty of opportunity there for students who are under 21. We are also working with community leaders at the Alerus Center and the Ralph Engelstad Arena to provide events like the Spring Fever concert, which has been moved to the fall this year, which is good.

Reedy: When it comes to “One North Dakota,” we are working with the North Dakota Student Association, and it has been a fantastic experience. Student leaders from all the public institutions across North Dakota come there every month to meet and talk about issues concerning students in higher education. We talk with each other and build relationships, so we can all work better as students to represent all of the 14,000 students across North Dakota.

Matt and I have worked very closely with this organization’s leadership. And of course, it’s extremely important that we continue working with state legislators in lobbying and talking with them about what students want and need.

Matthew, you served as vice president this past year. How has this experience prepared you for the post of president?  

Ternus: When I was vice president, Kaelan was my chief of staff. Together, we’ve been able to build a lot of connections that we’re ready to use and leverage to benefit the students in any way possible,  whether that’s with the administration, faculty and staff; whether that’s with community leaders; whether that’s with leadership at other institutions.  We’ve got a great line of communication with North Dakota State University’s new student body president, Matthew Friedman, and we’re excited to work with him.

This June, Incoming University President Andy Armacost is to assume his post. How are you planning to work with him?

Ternus: We’ve had the great opportunity to talk to Incoming President Armacost a couple of times now. He actually just recently tuned in and spoke at our most recent Student Senate meeting, which was awesome. The thing that excites me the most about President Armacost is his drive to want to unite the community with the campus. He was very, very big on that in the student forums during his on-campus interviews for the position. I can already tell that he’s going to be a fantastic leader. He’s going to be a present leader. I think he’s going to do a great job, and we’re going to be here to offer him support.

It’s usually tradition that the student body president, vice president and the president of the University have monthly meetings of some sort. We hope to continue that and maintain an open dialogue. That way, when there are concerns, Kaelan and I can make sure that they get relayed to the highest level.

We found instances like that working with President Wynne very early on last year. We realized some student concerns about internet connection on campus, and President Wynne admitted that he didn’t know that was an issue and tackled it right away. So, maintaining that open dialogue and being there for each other are the things that will help move this university forward.

As leaders on campus, how can you help students and the University adjust to whatever might come after the COVID-19 outbreak?

Ternus:  We are continuing to make sure that what is best for the students is being advocated for within the administration. I think that’s Priority One. Once distance learning went into effect this semester, Gracie and I fielded a lot of questions about housing fees returns, graduation and so on. We continue to make sure that we’re aware of the concerns of students.  At the beginning of the year, we were worried about floods; we weren’t worried about a pandemic.

The North Dakota Legislature meets in the spring of 2021. How are you engaging with legislators?

Ternus: Kaelan and I are ready to be out there advocating for students, whether that’s in scholarship dollars, in research dollars or other things that are going to help students at the University of North Dakota to get a quality education. We’re going be there fighting for the students every step of the way.