Student body president gets promotion
Utah State University Student Association president Trevor Sean Olsen replaced the former Utah Student Association president Monday evening. This came after the resignation of former USA president and current Weber State student body president Cash Knight.
“I have no comments on my resignation, but I believe Trevor will do a fantastic job,” Knight said. “I think he is very, very qualified.”
The USA executive board consists of eight student body presidents from institutions of higher education around the state. Olsen was elected by the group to executive vice president in April and is now succeeding Knight.
Olsen said the time commitment will not change very much for him between the vice presidency and the presidency. His responsibilities with USUSA will not change at all, but he will have more administrative duties.
“There have been a lot of loose ends that have not been tied up from the last president, and I think trying to tie all that up and taking care of those things that weren’t taken care of, is going to be the biggest issue,” Olsen said.
As Olsen’s adviser, student involvement director Linda Zimmerman will be the primary adviser for the students in the executive board of USA. Weber State is in the process of hiring a student involvement director, so Zimmerman has already helped fill that role while Olsen was the executive vice president.
“I’m excited for Trevor. I think he’s got some great qualities to lead this group up. He’s very well-respected throughout the state,” Zimmerman said. “I think he’s going to take this and run with it now.”
Utah Valley University student body president Dylan Swarts said he knows Olsen well and believes he will be a great president of the association. Swarts said that on Monday night, he and Olsen were discussing their statewide initiative for the year, which is mental health. Many students in the Utah System of Higher Education are underserved when it comes to mental health resources, including Utah State, where it can take three or four weeks to have an appointment at the counseling center.
“Trevor has established and been running a great mental health task force at USU, and he has provided a lot of great examples and feedback to use as we do the same on our campuses,” Swarts said.
Swarts is excited for the changes that will come with Olsen’s presidency, he said. Olsen introduced the initiative of mental health — called “Stand up to Stigma” — which all the other schools adopted.
“[Knight] stepped down knowing that somebody else who was more passionate about the initiative would take over and hopefully get things moving a little bit easier,” Olsen said.
The student body presidents represent the interests of the students for their respective institutions in USA, but as president, Olsen’s role consists of chairing, directing and representing the group. USA works with the Utah State Board of Regents, the Commissioner of Higher Education, the Utah State Legislature and other community and government agencies. Currently, the group is working to create a video with students from around the state in order to promote mental health awareness.
“He has been working hard at USU on the mental health campaign and has been a great help as we have sought to implement similar programs across the state,” said Brandon Day, Southern Utah University student body president. “He is very professional, has great energy and is well-organized.”
Day said Olsen is familiar with the challenges of the position and is ready to take them on. Although this change is coming almost halfway through the school year, Day believes Olsen will do a great job.
“He clearly understands what USA is about, and because of that I think he’s going to be able to step right in,” Zimmerman said.
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