Ben Riley balances school, ASUSU
It takes running shoes to gain a glimpse into a day in the life of Ben Riley, president of Associated Students of Utah State University.
He starts early-usually 7 a.m. – and doesn’t stop until as late as 9 p.m. Meetings, classes and helping students fill his hours. Busy work often piles up until the latter part of the day until 9 p.m., when he devotes himself to studying. Saturdays have become his days to catch up.
“I’m certainly busy,” Riley said. “There are a lot of students who work full time or are taking 18 credits. There are other people that I’m sure that are as busy if not busier than I am. But it is challenging, just like it is for most other students that are involved in a number of other things. It is tough to get your homework and all those types of things done.”
Riley tries to attend as many school activities as possible because he enjoys them, and because it is really essential to him to be involved in students’ lives.
“A lot of the people you represent you don’t see very much,” Riley said. “I think that it’s very important to be there.”
“A good part about my job is that no single day is the same,” Riley said. “I guess everyone can say that. There are some things that I do every day like answer my voice mails and e-mails that I receive. But then I have a lot of other things that come up that I deal with every day.”
Riley attends many meetings in a week. Last Friday he attended two meetings in search of a new director for the library. He also attends meetings where making life more enjoyable for the students is the main goal. On a statewide level, he is a member of the Utah Council of Student Body Presidents. They meet monthly at different places around the state and represent the school to the legislature. On Monday, he went to the Utah State Legislature to give a presentation for library funding.
“I personally sit on 19 committees that are standing committees,” Riley said.
“Every day is a little bit different,” he said. “It’s not always fun, but is always exciting. Sometimes the meetings are long. By in large, I love what I do and I love the interactions I have with people. That is my favorite part of anything, meeting new people and having people come in with different problems or things that they want to have worked on.”
Riley should graduate in August in Business Management and Liberal Arts and Sciences. He could have graduated this spring if he would have taken a full load last semester and this semester.
“When I decided to run, I felt that I would really have to commit myself,” Riley said. “To take 18 credits I didn’t know if I’d be able to perform the duties as well as I ought to.”
After he graduates, Riley plans to get a joint business law degree. Riley is from Pason and enjoys spending time with his family. He loves soccer, basketball, ultimate Frisbee and tennis. He likes to read, snow ski and water ski, jog and hike.
“I like the outdoors,” Riley said. “The hard thing about it is it seems like ever since I came to school I don’t have much time to do what I really like to do. You have time restraints and money restraints.”
Whether Riley is off helping fellow students or sitting in meetings, he is always trying to fulfill his responsibilities to USU.