Matthew Desilets sat at his freshman induction ceremony and listened to Lou Venturelli, the Student Government Association Student Body President at the time, tell the Class of 2014, “the next Student Body President is sitting amongst you right now.” From that moment on, Desilets knew that he wanted to hold that position.

[media-credit id=2019 align=”alignright” width=”200″][/media-credit]On April 10, that dream became reality, as Desilets, a business management major, was elected as Student Body President for the 2013-2014 academic year.

Desilets was the lone candidate for the position.

“People have asked me why they think that occurred,” Desilets said. “I’m taking it as a vote of confidence, like SGA believes in me to be their president for this next year.”

Desilets has been on SGA for two years now, first as sophomore class president and then as junior class president.

As junior class president, Desilets worked to make SGA more transparent. He was an instrumental part of getting SGA the permission to send emails, like the SGA annual report to the student body, which they previously had not been allowed to do.

He and the junior class cabinet also invited 30 juniors to a class cabinet meeting to get their input.

“The feedback we got from that was awesome, so it’s definitely something I’m going to look for each class cabinet to do in the next year,” Desilets said.

Desilets wants to improve communication in SGA to prevent the different cabinets from working on the same issues.

“What we’re trying to do for this next year is trying to figure out a new structure for SGA,” Desilets said. “I think for me it is going to be finding out a way where we can best internally communicate for SGA, so those overlaps don’t happen. Whether that’s reforming our general board meetings or me taking a step forward and attending all the class cabinet meetings.”

Desilets also hopes to bring back university hour for the 2014-2015 academic year. University hour would be one hour during the week where no classes would be going on, he said. This would allow organizations to hold meetings or events during the day. Quinnipiac used to have a university hour and this is something that occurs on many college campuses, Desilets said.

“That is my major goal, something that I’d like to leave behind for the university to enjoy,” he said.

Although he ran unopposed for Student Body President, Desilets did not relax during the campaign period. On election day, Desilets walked around campus for six hours speaking to students.

“Running unopposed was a real blessing,” he said. “It allowed me to go around and talk to students, introduce myself and start to get immediate feedback on what students wanted.”

Desilets described himself as goofy, friendly and outgoing, something that newly elected Vice President for Programming Robert Grant could attest to.

“Because of his presence on this campus I think he’s going to be able to serve as student body president very well,” Grant said. “People feel comfortable coming up to him because he is one of those warm, welcoming people who’s always out there saying ‘hi’ and I think that’s the thing that makes all the difference.”

According to Grant, one of Desilets’ strengths is listening to others.

“[Desilets] definitely likes to take into consideration everyone’s ideas, which is very important especially when you’re in that position in e-board,” Grant said. “He’s definitely committed to doing that and working with our cabinet to make a difference for the student body.”

Newly-elected Vice President for Public Relations Julianna Besharat feels that Desilets is hardworking and determined.

“He knows how to lead our cabinet very well,” she said. “He knows where things should go and he’s not going to stop until he gets there.”

Desilet said that he wants students to come to him with concerns or suggestions.

“Students, feel free to reach out to me in anyway, whether it’s stopping by the office or emailing me with any concerns you might have,” he said. “Any ideas you’ve heard from other schools. Cool things that happened there, traditions. That’s definitely something that we want to hear about. Don’t keep it to yourself and let us know what you want us to do because we’re here to serve you.”

Desilets and the rest of the executive board will be sworn into their new positions on April 24.