“I do believe that the administration and the faculty, their main goal is to teach, relay information, relay wisdom, set the students up for the rest of their lives.” From areas such as diversity, to the student organizations, Jason Chlus speaks confidently of administration’s support and believes Stevens to be “student-centric” yet calls for students to have more pride in Stevens.
Jason Chlus, a sophomore Software Engineering major, was elected President of the Student Government Association (SGA) last November after a run-off election following Jonathan Darlak declining his victory in the initial round of elections. Chlus, who previously served as a member of the Budget Committee while a senator, is the first sophomore President since 2015.
Last semester, the SGA undertook the initiative of improving diversity education on campus. Chlus feels administration supports this goal: “I think they realize it’s important and I think they realize they’ve waited too long to incorporate it.” Chlus aims to work with Nasir Montalvo, Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Ad-Hoc Committee, and Nina Ioanis, Vice-President of Student Interests, in this pursuit. He describes both of them as “extremely passionate” about diversity. Aside from a safe space of learning for diversity on campus, Chlus hopes to work with admissions to recruit people of diverse backgrounds. He hopes that these just as qualified individuals bring a new visual to Stevens to transform Stevens from a local, commuter school to a school that includes individuals from diverse locations and backgrounds.
The administration continues to recognize problems students face and aims to solve them. With the recent delay of the Alexander House and the resulting difficulties for student organizations, Chlus recognizes that this upcoming semester will be difficult. “The administration has thought of every idea possible to give people the proper space they deserve and they’ve been really doing a good job in that sense,” said Chlus, “but it comes down to the end of the day we just don’t have enough space right now.” He further stated that the SGA does not have a specific plan of action and continued to stress that the administration has thought of every possible idea to allocate space.
For issues which the administration and student body disagree on, Chlus believes they [administration] will change their stance once they hear the students’ perspective. One of the recent blights for students was the shortening of the Wednesday Academic Break last year from five hours to two hours. “Stevens is something that is difficult to get a big response out of it, and this definitely got a large response,” said Chlus. So far, any attempt to bring back the academic break has been unsuccessful. However, Chlus believes he will succeed in bringing the break back. Last semester, Chlus developed a relationship with the Provost, Christophe Pierre, and hopes to create a plan with him this semester. Chlus claims the space issue that caused the shortening of the academic break in the first place will be solved once the new Gianforte Family Academic Center opens, “We’re getting a hundred something classrooms, another two buildings which are just massive, there’s like no reason, there’s no struggle for space anymore,” Chlus stated. However, he also stated that he did not work with Pierre to determine if there actually was enough space in the Gianforte building and did not have a set plan for bringing the full-length academic break back.
Building connections didn’t inspire Chlus to run for President, but rather his experiences with student government in high school. In high school, Chlus stated that the student government did everything from prom to clubs and stated students were thankful for its work. He wants to bring that feeling to the SGA at Stevens. When Chlus shared these feelings with the past cabinet, specifically Lucas Gallo, Marianna Flemming, and Anthony Picone, they suggested that he run for President.
Centrally, Chlus notes the large communication gap between the student body, faculty, and the student government as well as a lack of campus pride. “It boils down to how do you get students to care about what’s going on,” said Chlus. He draws on a story from a friend who goes to Clemson University and the large amount of campus pride they have. He hopes to build that pride at Stevens. While Stevens cannot rely heavily on athletics like Clemson, Chlus hopes to rely on other avenues that make Stevens stand out. “It’s very important that people know they’re getting a strong degree, and they enjoy the classes they’re taking, they’re actually learning the material,” said Chlus, “that comes from getting the faculty involved and getting good connections and getting to know your teachers and being present on campus.”
How does Chlus plan to instill this campus pride? Drawing from personal experience: Getting involved on campus. “I came here my freshman year and I didn’t join any orgs at all, I didn’t do anything,” said Chlus, “And I was feeling distant from Stevens.” He believes that getting involved on campus will remove the apathetic feeling of Stevens students, thus increasing campus pride. He hopes that non-involved students will be motivated by seeing how much heavily involved students enjoy being involved. “People will follow that enthusiasm and people will be led by it,” said Chlus, “Just watching others enjoy what they are doing.”
Chlus hopes that this campus pride will improve student success after Stevens and alumni connections. He hopes that by working closely with the Career Center, Stevens students will be able to use a network to progress themselves in their further career goals. By using this network, Chlus hopes Stevens students will gain an advantage in the job search. Once Stevens has campus pride, he thinks this network will be successful. “Like oh you’re from Stevens, I would love to help you,” Chlus stated as the mentality he wishes to develop.
Focusing on the year ahead and developing campus pride, Chlus isn’t necessarily looking at a second term. “I’ve considered it,” said Chlus on running for a second term. “There’s a lot of things to be done this term and we’ll see at the end of my term if I should do it again [and] if I believe I did a good job. It’s a little too early to decide.”
Disclaimer: Perspectives is an interview series with student leaders from the Stevens community. The opinions published here are those of the individuals interviewed and are not representative of The Stute or any of its writers.
Be First to Comment