by Jonathan McNicholes, State Chair
Wow, what a year.
Many years ago, I attempted for the first time to try to become an officer for Students United. I saw how the world was changing around us and the impact that an organization like Students United could play on creating a better system, for the students that surrounded me in my time at Bemidji State University. After many attempts to run a year ago, I took on a more obscure endeavor, a completely virtual election due to a pandemic that had just begun with impacts on students in ways that none of us would truly understand until now.
To my surprise, I won that election and finally had the opportunity to work with the students of Minnstate in a way that I never had before. I was hopefully waiting for the pandemic to subside in order to continue to support the students and endeavors that our organization has been working on for years.
As we know the pandemic did not subside and we did not fully work on the traditionally scheduled programming. We fought for a whole lot more. What I thought would be potentially a traditional year turned out to be anything but. June and July is traditionally a down period for students united as we introduce the new members into our organization and allow our staff who has been working tirelessly all year long to take a rest, but not this year. This year we came into the year during an awakening of our country, with the murder of George Floyd igniting the passion, fight, and conversation of race, equity, inclusion, and injustice that impacts the world around us. Sparking conversations that have been needed to have been had in higher education for a dreadfully long time. We were able to rise to the call for this moment and challenge the system and legislature to rethink what does equity and inclusion look for our students and faculty and how much change is needed to be a just, equitable, and fair system.
Simultaneously we were in a fight to shut down harmful ICE guidelines that would completely upend the lives of our fellow international students, in the middle of a global pandemic. Thankfully due in part to our advocacy these policies got rescinded and our students would not need to fear deportation in the middle of an already challenging pandemic.
The impacts of the pandemic, the Census, the 2020 election, historic conversations on what does student debt and loan forgiveness look like, are just small parts of what was left to tackle this year. All during a time where our students could not meet in person, Students United committees could not meet in person, System committees could not meet in person, but with all of these barriers, we still found a way. We found ways to bring student voices in front of the legislature, the chancellor, the board of trustees, and even our state and federal representatives, and numerous other national conversations. I am honored to have been able to be a part of these conversations and have been able to uplift the voices of our students in a time where our voices need to be heard more than ever.
This year has been extraordinary untraditional, It was in no way anything I was prepared to be working on, nor was it in the way I was expecting to work, but I cannot be more proud of the work we have accomplished, we have established Minnesota state Students as key leaders on student advocacy not only in our state, but in our country, and this is done from all the work that students put into this organization. Even in the middle of a pandemic, we had numerous students engaged and involved in fighting for their fellow students, who I cannot thank enough.
The connection to other students through advocacy was the single thing I was most excited to be involved with and surrounded in through my time in this role and one of the most unfortunate things for me as our work transitioned to all virtual which made it infinitely harder to sit down and talk with students in the structure that State Chairs in the past have been able to. But we have still been fighting strong and I am so thankful for all the students I have been able to connect with and work beside in all of the board meetings, Students United Committees, System committees, and numerous other areas where our students have come out in force to create change. I hope you have all been able to find some sense of drive, determination, and love for advocating and fighting for others throughout this year.
Students United is solely successful because of this drive in our students alone, in a year that was beyond difficult I hope you could find this drive and share it with others to continue to bring others into this work, as it is the only way we will continue to create change and has been the most rewarding thing that I have gained over my three years working closely with Students United.
I say this because as I end my term as State Chair, I have recognized wow what a year we have all experienced, but as I listen to the rhetoric happening in our system and in our country. I am seeing conversations happening that have never been happening before, change is ready to be made and it is going to be BIG and I know what I will come to mean is wow what a decade.
Now is the time to start pushing, now is the time to start forcing the changes we need to happen, and now is the time to join us and make this change. This is supposed to be a farewell blog post, but I absolutely reject that, I have one year left in my master’s program at Metropolitan State University and therefore have plenty of time left to continue to advocate for students, so I am excited to continue in a new way next year as a board member in order to keep making change for our students, while I continue down my own personal journey of policy, advocacy and nonprofits. So, instead of farewell, I will just say see you next year.
I would also be deeply remised if I did not also take a moment to give my deepest thank you to the members of our board, who have worked tirelessly in the most difficult ways to lead this organization and advocate for our students this year. As well as my wonderful officers Emma, and Victor, who had to work with me throughout this entire year, a feat that is impressive already in a normal year let alone a pandemic. Also a huge thank you to our staff who do not ever get the recognition they deserve, their passion, resiliency and drive for helping students should never go unrecognized as they are consistently putting in more effort and passion than we could ever ask for in not only fighting for students collectively, but through their personal efforts of guiding, supporting, and caring for myself and other student leaders.