GO Getter: Orlando Hodges

Missouri State's new student body president is bringing senate back.

Orlando Hodges just can’t seem to get out of student politics. The former student cabinet president at Central High School is now, as a junior, the student body president at Missouri State University. He says he didn’t want to get involved when he first came to college: But it happened anyway. Good thing. Orlando is taking his job as president—and as a leader of Missouri State’s minority student population—very seriously. Here’s what Orlando had to say about the coming year.

Now that you’re Papa Bear, so to speak, what’s the best thing about this time of year?
I love it because of how fresh it is. A new semester means new classes, a new schedule, new people.

Two years ago there was the name change and a new president. Last year there were a lot of things, with a new [JQH] arena, the student rec center, the change to the nondiscrimination policy, the lobbying to release MOHELA funds [the state’s higher education endowment that was tied up in legislation]… what are some of those flash points on your radar right now?
Things are a little different for us. The rec center is still an issue. Until it happens it will be an issue. There’s publicity for JQH, and of course now MOHELA has passed.

How does MOHLEA affect students?
A lot of that money is for campus renovations, and it’s part of the dominoes for the rec center [to happen].

Other things?
As far as Senate issues go, we’re still looking at BearTRACS [a peer taxi program]. It’s a monster of a program. The places it’s working are places... like Mizzou. But their student government has a million dollars, so paying forty to fifty thousand is a drop in the bucket. At Missouri State we’re not quite that well off… And of course in the wake of Virginia Tech, we’re trying to find ways to make campus more safe. Student government has worked with the president’s first-response task force.

You’re a junior. Are you going to graduate early, or are you thinking about being the FDR of Missouri State and running for another term?
I don’t know a rule that says I can’t, but I don’t want to tell people I’m going to run again. I just want to finish one year and see if I like the job.

Socially, what are some of the things challenging Missouri State, and what are some things that are really positive about it?
I’ll go positive first. One of the things that Missouri State does really well is it lets students get involved and keeps them involved. I’m a junior now, and I came to the university and within three weeks I had leadership positions [in my residence hall]… Dr. Nietzel himself is amazing. He’ll meet with students on a regular basis.

And the negative?
I think this university could do a lot more with its minority recruitment, with just that [race issue] in general. For instance, say there were only 50 African-Americans on campus, (there are more than that), but it feels like within the 50 there are cliques of two or three, so you’ve got 20 or 30 cliques for 50 students. It’s lonely and isolated. And it’s that way because... no one’s saying anything about it. The students aren’t getting involved. I can count on one hand the number of black University Ambassadors, and that’s bad. It’s not representative of the university, not a good representation of the students. Minority students are not getting involved in leadership or in the upper echelons of the university, and it’s because I get the feeling they don’t think it’s important and the university is encouraging it.

What can you do through your office to improve that?
I plan to do a lot with it. I’m trying to make sure it’s not something I’m noticing just because I’m a student of color—I don’t want to be that guy. I plan to meet with the presidents of these organizations that serve students of color and ask them why they don’t participate.

How much does the situation you just described mirror the city we live in?
It definitely mirrors the city, and I don’t know why. I don’t understand it and I’m trying to understand it. I feel like you really need to understand it to fix it. I’m going to start at the top and work down, I guess.

Check out the video Orlando and his running mate, vice-president Matthew Jungers, made. Click here to watch "Bringing Senate Back."