Joey Mullaney
Age 20 | Major Political Science | Year Class of 2017
Q: What made you decide to run for student body president?
A: “I thought I would be best at serving the students because that’s a goal and really hearing them out. I’m a very personable guy through going around campus, being an orientation leader, all of that. So I really got to know people and know what issues they have.”
Q: What qualities do you have that make you confident you will be a great leader of the student body?
A: “I think I’m very friendly, I mean my buddies say I’m not but I will be, they’re just messing with me though. But I’m guessing I’m very easy to talk to and I talk to people as much as I can….I try to get to know everyone I’m with, try to learn more because the more I know about someone, the more I learn about how diverse this school is.”
Q: What does it mean to you now that you are student body president?
A: “Oh, it’s unreal… Yes, now I am the student body president. But, it’s not just a title to me. It’s someone who acts for this organization to be the best it can be. It’s not going to be an ‘I’ thing its going to be ‘we.’”
Q: Do you have any new ideas that you are going to try to implement?
A: “Yes, definitely. One major idea is cultural awareness around campus. There’s students that in the fall felt unrepresented, especially by student government. And I was like ‘that’s terrible, we say we serve the students so let’s do just that.’ So I see myself having SGA co-sponsor events with cultural groups. Not just cultural groups, but groups that want to have recognition that can help better each person. I know for me when I’ve gone to an event like that about something new, something random to me, I’ve learned so much. It has made me a much better person, I think. And I feel like if students are able to go to events like these it can help them grow and get out of the idea that, or the bubble, they grew up in and learn more, being a more diverse person.”
Q: Is there anything you’ve seen this year, or that is preexisting that you want to change or modify in any way?
A: “It starts first internally. We had a lot of [SGA] members drop this year and we were unsure why. So next year our big focus is going to be member motivation and keeping the SGA members enthused to be here. So once we start with us we can start with the school. And then there are issues around campus but we can’t take care of that unless we take care of ourselves first.”
Q: What are you looking forward to most about starting out as student body president?
A: “That’s a big question, a good question. It hasn’t really hit me, not gonna lie about that, I’m student body president. But what I’m looking forward to most is the experience. I was on e[xecutive] board this year, so I saw some of the issues but I wasn’t able to take care of it or act upon it–[current student body president] Jonny [Atkin] was. So I’m excited to go through that. I’m really excited about failing because when you fail you learn from it. So I’m excited to be able to grow and become the best I can if not the best ever.”
Q: At the end of next year when your time is done as student body president, what is one goal you want to look back and hope to have accomplished?
A: “I mean, this is going to take more than one year, but I want to eliminate stereotypes that Quinnipiac is not diverse. So if I can say in a year from now there are more students aware of more cultures, more groups, more organizations that want recognition, I’m satisfied. And also I would be satisfied when we can say that SGA did their best and gave it their all. If they fail, they fail, but if they gave it their all, that’s all right.”
