Inside the Mind of Student Body President-Elect Jack Corby
Jack Corby’22, the newly elected student body president and Beta Theta Pi brother, feels that “you shouldn’t have to have a byline to have your opinions heard.”
Corby’s passion to run for this important position is rooted in the current disconnect between the student body and the administration. Based on his own experience of not being able to voice his opinion, Corby wants to change the fact that students' voices not in leadership positions aren’t being heard. He was also frustrated and disappointed that even though he is involved, campus doors would not open up for him.
Meet your new president-elect, Elon. Introducing Jack Corby, a voice for students. Photo provided by Jack Corby.
“Unless you're in a prominent circle like SGA, IFC, etc. you don’t really see a lot of the administration,” he shares.
Corby plans to stress the importance of diversity and inclusion (DEI) on campus. “I grew up in a very liberal household outside of DC and DEI has always been on my mind and I really appreciate that about my family,” he says.
It is no secret that Elon does not have an overwhelming diverse community, but there definitely are people who are not white, and Corby wants to make sure that SGA executive board has that diversity component because there are non-white people on this campus who deal with racism every day.
Ready and Resilient
Corby believes that communications gaps and broken avenues have been even more exposed by Covid.
“Sometimes the administration takes the students' voices for granted to some degree,” he explains. “The people who represent us on SGA need to be pretty open to what everyone in the student body is going through.”
Corby is most frustrated that there is no student representation on the current Ready and Resilient team. The outgoing president Robbie Miley was invited to sit on the Covid-19 task force last spring but was not invited to sit on the full-time committee. Corby described how when he has conversations with faculty on the Ready and Resilient team, they are present to give their own expertise into those meetings and how it would affect them. Sounds perfect right? Wrong. You're leaving out the opinions of 6,500 people, the students.
Corby shares that he was invited to sit on the fall task force for the upcoming 2021 semester but still not the Ready and Resilient team.
“I don't know if they have a plan or not,” Corby says about Elon’s intentions for returning to post-Covid normalcy. “No student is in the room so we just don't know.”
Greek Life
“Greek life, in particular, has been made a scapegoat,” Corby says, “and I think it is chalked up to the fact that athletics has had the same amount of outbreaks but they are still allowed to do a lot of in-person things.”
The NCAA requires more frequent testing, so when they have clusters they are not identified in the same way greek life is. Corby recognizes that the administration is trying to enforce, and there are organizations on this campus that are not uploading the current policies and guidelines that have been put in place for them.
Corby feels that the reason for the disconnect is a lack of content with the policies because we as students have not been invited to those circles. Some things are state and federally mandated that Elon is forced to follow but the day-to-day operations of Elon should have student representation. Corby voices that especially as a male participant of the IFC, he feels that there even should be a Greek representative in the room getting the reasoning behind their actions.
Corby wants the administration and students to unite, and the only way to do this is for the administration to explain their policies other than just saying to read the Ready and Resilient policies on Elon’s website.
Corby also feels that recruitment was unfair to women in the Panhellenic community as rush was split over two weekends.
“They forced a lot of recruitment to happen and in a way, it had to happen, but I have heard a lot of uneasiness of how recruitment was handled, especially for girls having to cram it into two weekends without any real breaks or warning to the professors,” he says. “I know a lot of girls who are in Panhellenic who had recruitment all day Saturday and Sunday and had a test on Monday, and that's just not an enjoyable experience for anybody.”
First Year Experiences
Cabin fever is real. People need more human contact than just who they live with. Corby recognizes how hard it must be for first-year students to make any friends other than in their hall.
“It’s not like any first-year is going to chime in on those Zoom calls when they just join an org,” he says.
This year more than ever first-year students rushed for Greek life and Corby believes it is because first-years are eager to find a place for themselves, and who could blame them?! Unfortunately, the community that first-year students are seeking is not satisfying on Zoom.
We are so excited to see Jack thrive in this position and make our voices as students heard!
Meet Jack Corby by watching his election video: