At his State of the Campus address Tuesday, Student Body President Tj Villamil said he’s working to represent students’ demands to the state to curb tuition increase.
About 250 students attended the address, during which Villamil discussed the Aim Higher initiative, which he said started at UF in Spring 2012.
After his speech, Villamil said the soft launch will start with an outreach and a social media campaign.
The hard launch will be in December when he goes to Tallahassee to persuade state representatives to increase funding for higher education.
He said the ultimate goal is to not increase tuition for the Spring semester.
He also discussed UF’s search for a new president. Villamil is the only student member of the Presidential Search Committee.
“The president of this university should make sure he connects with all of you as students,” he said.
He asked students with feedback or questions regarding the presidential search to contact him or other Student Government officials.
Villamil said that as a member of the Board of Trustees, he was a part of the decision to increase UF tuition by 9 percent instead of the 15 percent other universities adopted.
“We are getting a bargain unlike any other,” he said.
Other initiatives SG accomplished include a Mobile Deal Launch. Students can text “UF” to 96714 to receive notifications about discounts.
He said it cost nothing: Marlimar, an interactive mobile strategies company, does all the work by getting in contact with the companies for discounts.
After the meeting, Jenna Goldman, the new president of the Students Party, said she is disappointed with Villamil’s address.
Villamil focused more on logos and the rebranding of SG cabinets than on recognizing the progress it made in the past year, she said.
Goldman also said he didn’t mention bipartisanship, and he misled students about the SG budget, which Villamil said is about $5 million.
During his speech, Villamil said he wanted to clear up ideas about the misconceptions about the SG budget.
SG is in charge of managing the money collected from students’ activity and service fees.
When the funds are collected, they total about $18 million, according to the SG website.
SG gets about $5 million of it and allocates the rest to the Reitz Union and the Department of Recreational Sports.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
UF Student Body President Tj Villamil gives the State of the Campus address Tuesday night in the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom.
