Meet SGA President Brian Hoffman
August 22nd, 2007
Brian Hoffman
Student Government Association President Brian Hoffman thinks this is an exciting time to be a University of Louisville Cardinal. His administration wants to help students first by revamping SGA.
SGA President Profile: Brian Hoffman
Hometown: Northern Kentucky, more specifically a city called Edgewood.
Major: Economics and political science.
Academic year: I am a senior and I will be graduating in May of 2008.
Career goals: I am interested in international law and politics. After graduating I will spend a year abroad in Southeast Asia earning a master’s degree in international relations as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. From abroad I will apply to law schools, and that is about as far as I have gotten in plotting out the rest of my life. Hopefully, I will think of something.
Student government experience: I began my involvement with SGA as a freshman by participating in the SGA-sponsored program Freshman Leadership Enrichment and Development (LEAD). From there I was elected to be a senator from the College of Business and chaired the Student Organization Board which screens all new student organizations and recommends their approval. During my junior year I served as the executive vice president of student government.
Reason for SGA involvement: I have always possessed a desire to lead and serve. As a high school student I was my class president all four years, and student government at UofL was the most logical means to extend that type of service. Like many students, I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to attend college, and from the beginning of my collegiate career I have hoped to leave a positive impression on my university. I saw student government as being one of the best ways to have such an impact. I was also close to former SGA leaders Bill Brammell and Nate Haney, both fraternity brothers of mine, and they both helped get me involved in SGA.
How this administration will build on the positive things about being a student at UofL: UofL is currently in a period of tremendous growth. New buildings seem to break ground monthly, our academic reputation continues to rise, and our incoming classes get better each year. It is truly an exciting time to be a Cardinal. It is the goal of this administration to take part in helping to facilitate further growth, but to constantly remind the university that it is first and foremost here to educate and serve its students, not athletics, rankings, or buildings.
Goals for improving the UofL student experience: We have set a bold agenda. Simply put (but not so simply done) we hope to revolutionize student government at the University of Louisville. We are looking to embrace our real role as the elected lobbyists for the student body. To do this we will evolve our structure to be more inclusive and representative. One of our principal focuses will be student outreach, where we will gauge how students feel about a given issues, what their needs are, and then involve them in communicating those feelings and needs to the university administration.
Tuition will also be a focus of this year administration. However, our focus will be different than previous years in that we are not concerned with a particular number or percentage increase, but instead on how tuition is set — a process that we perceive as being highly arbitrary. Similarly, we have begun to lay out plans addressing campus services such as food, health, and safety, as well as academic issues like advising.
A year is a long time considering that our entire leadership has already had several years of experience in SGA. All of us have hit the ground running, and we used the summer months to organize and plan for the year ahead. Of course we cannot do everything in a year, but we have full confidence that we can accomplish all of the goals we have set for ourselves.
