On standing tall and smiling

It seems so recently that I took office as president of the Student Government Association and spoke of my excitement at the prospect of making a difference and “serving well the thousands of our fellow students who are depending on us.” Today, as I leave this chair, I feel satisfied that we have served well.

This leadership experience has reaffirmed for me how important it is for each of us to strive to subordinate our selfish interests to the interests of our community. When I assumed office I said, “In this world we all win or lose together; there is no satisfaction in failing.” We called ourselves the Students for Positive Change Party, and one year later I am only more assured that our lives are one long struggle between positive and negative, constructive and destructive, good and evil.

Whenever we say anything negative about someone, we are undermining our own character. As interdependent, related, fellow travelers, negative statements not only diminish others, they also diminish us individually. If I could make one rule to advance the future success and prosperity of the SGA it would be that we only speak well of one another. I hope the SGA will always stand for positive change.

As a product of adversity myself, you know how closely I have aligned myself with financially and academically struggling students at VCU. Ours is not a university of the privileged. My highest goals have always been to increase financial and academic assistance in the form of scholarships and mentoring for those deserving students on the margins, such as myself.

Of our many accomplishments, I am most proud of the additional scholarships we have made available this year and the mentoring program, which is in its infancy. There are thousands more students among us who need this help. For a university of our stature, our retention rates are embarrassingly low. We can and must do more.

A large part of the solution rests with us. We must geometrically increase the endowment funds available for scholarships. To do this we must increase the involvement of our alumni; we must increase our financial contributions beginning with the Class of 2009 Scholarship Fund. Building alumni relations begins the first day each student steps on campus, with Ram Walk and freshman convocation.

Our affection for VCU develops while we are on campus, not after we graduate. We must develop school spirit. We must increase student involvement in student activities, increase reporting on the SGA in The Commonwealth Times and increase voting in SGA elections. We must have a football team and marching band and bring our alumni back to campus. This isn’t about football. Nearly 85 percent of our alumni are Virginia residents and more than 50 percent of them live in the Richmond area. Yet, a mere 7.2 percent of our alums are members of the Alumni Association. That must change. We simply cannot afford to lose this “life blood” of our university. So many more things can be done.

So I challenge you, new leaders, to achieve those big, positive things. Should you succeed as we have succeeded, a year from now you will also stand tall and smile as I am today, elevated by the knowledge and comforted by the satisfaction, that you too did your best. Don’t ever forget that in helping others, you are truly helping yourselves.

Jibran Muhammad