The National Campus Leadership Council (NCLC) holds a presidential leadership summit for incoming and outgoing college student body presidents every year in May or June.
This year, the conference began Saturday night, May 31, and ended Monday afternoon, June 1, in Washington, D.C. NCLC serves as a place for student leaders to confront national issues facing young students today, according to their website.
SGA President Walker Byrd received an invitation from Andy MacCracken, executive director of NCLC, to participate in this year’s conference.
MacCracken co-founded NCLC three and a half years ago.
Byrd sent his application, along with 900 other student body presidents across the nation.
However, only 120 schools, including Auburn, were given the opportunity to attend the conference representing more than $1.5 million students, according to Byrd.
A welcome reception kicked off the weekend Saturday night followed by a day filled with programs and speakers who led discussions on campus issues.
Some of these issues were creating inclusive communities, college to career transitions
and environmental sustainability.
“It was pretty interesting to see that they were pretty similar across the nation,” Byrd said.
This is the first time in a couple years Auburn has attended the conference, according to Byrd, who also said they discussed the need to keep college affordable for the average student with tuition increasing and state appropriations decreasing.
Byrd met MacCracken when he travelled to D.C. for the confernece this past weekend. MacCracken said he was “definitely looking forward to
working with [Byrd] this year.”
He also said the conference offered an afternoon of skillsbased workshops which included sessions on project planning, fundraising, media training and speech writing.
“I jumped in, and I helped run a handful of those sessions,” MacCracken said.
The student leaders gathered at the Eisenhower Office Building on White House grounds Monday to meet policy makers and people in the Obama administration.
The Obama administration and several nonprofit organizations spearheaded a movement called It’s On Us, a nation-wide sexual assault awareness campaign.
The Auburn SGA passed the The Auburn SGA passed the It’s On Us Sexual Assault Prevention resolution April 20th at their weekly meeting.
Sexual assault policy was discussed at the conference in addition to mental health and how to get the rid of the stigma attached to it, according to Byrd.
“I feel really good about where stand with a lot of the information that I’ve earned … so I definitely feel like I am more knowledgeable on all of these topics and have a better idea on how to attack some of them,” Byrd said.
Byrd said he has gained a network of student body presidents who he can lean on for support.
“If I have any questions about anything or run through any hurdles, somebody else probably had to fight that same battle and had to deal with that same issue, so that I can rely on them and talk to them, just for help or for guidance,” Byrd said.
Bradley Smith, SGA adviser, discussed attending the conference with Byrd and decided it was important Auburn was represented.
“First, it was an opportunity to enhance our political affairs involvement,” Smith said. “Second, it would not look good for Auburn to be the only of our peer institutions not attending. So I registered Walker or the conference and we booked a flight for him.”
MacCracken said the conference created a coalition of students that could work on these issues without boundaries.
"I think if you look at the issues that our generation is facing right now, we’re up against some really difficult challenges,” MacCracken said. “You know, we know that too many students on campus don’t feel safe. We obviously know the statistics around campus sexual assault. We know that too many students don’t get help for any sort of mental illness or any hard times they’re going through and suicide’s the second leading cause of death among college students, so we’re discussing these really difficult issues, and I think the most important thing is that, as we’re going into these discussions, that we’re able to connect the student leaders who can really help shape, not only what’s happening on their own campuses, but what’s happening on campuses around the country, so we can lean on each other and really start to drive the change we need to see on all these issues.”
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
