By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
Student body president and Aurora, Colo., senior Lily Davis entered her term with a long list of goals, working for better game days, a stronger sense of belonging and a more transparent student government.
Davis is a busy student. She has a double major in political science and religion, is a member of Chi Omega and serves as a teacher’s assistant. On top of that, she’s a student body president with an extensive agenda.
High on that list of objectives is promoting a deeper sense of belonging at Baylor in all avenues and places. One of those places is McLane Stadium, according to Davis.
For Davis, it wasn’t just the on-field performances that made football games so grim last season. A lot of students find it hard to embrace the game day atmosphere whether the Bears win or lose, Davis said. For unaffiliated students, the experience can be lacking.
“You can look at our tailgating experience, for example. A lot of people tailgate with their organizations,” Davis said. “You see [fraternity and sorority life] has a really strong tailgating experience, either on or off campus. But what if you’re not part of that organization? What if you’re not part of the line? What if you’re a third-year student who doesn’t have any organizational ties? Where do you belong in the mix of tailgating?”
While Davis’ plans are still in the works, she’s made progress toward getting a more campus-wide tailgate prepared for future game days, bringing the issue up to the administrators she hopes to work with for the project.
“I met with [Baylor] Athletics this past week, and I really got to speak on that. I want there to be a more robust tailgating and game day experience for unaffiliated students, because they deserve to feel that they can come and cheer on the Bears,” Davis said.
But Davis’ goal of improving belonging does not end at the bridge to McLane. Davis said she wants to make Baylor feel more like a place for all, all over campus. While many students feel at home in Waco, Davis said that isn’t always the case.
“Sometimes only a small percentage of perspectives are actually shared at the highest level, so one of my goals is to make sure I’m hearing the myriad of ideas, thoughts and concerns from all of our student body,” Davis said.
To Davis, meeting that goal requires more than being just a face. It requires action on the individual level. To explain how she’s taking this action, Davis provided an example.
“I was in class, and one of the students was talking about how she wants to add an African American Studies minor,” Davis said. “We have an Asian American Studies minor and different minors of that sort. She sounded very passionate about it. She was just frustrated that she hadn’t been able to make [headway]. That’s not my area of expertise, but I said, ‘Hey, let me help you. Let me figure out how I can connect you to the right people.’”
However, that’s not to say Davis doesn’t have more big picture goals for improving the community at Baylor. One of these campus-wide initiatives is her hope to implement a more community-friendly way of paying parking tickets. At schools such as the University of Oklahoma, parking fines go toward the college’s food pantry. Citing the fact that food insecurity among graduate students is incredibly high, Davis plans to direct parking ticket funds to a food pantry for these students and all others experiencing food insecurity.
Another one of her campus-wide initiatives involves something so simple that is often taken for granted: Baylor gear.
“You walk around our campus and you are likely to see a lot of different college T-shirts,” Davis said. “It’s not abnormal to see an A&M shirt, an Ohio State shirt [or] an Alabama shirt. You see Baylor gear as well, but not to the same level, comparatively, when you go to TCU or A&M and see the amount of school merchandise those students wear.”
Davis is not the only member of student government with belonging in mind. Hewitt sophomore Naomi Burgess, who serves as senate public relations chair, said that the senate’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee is turning its focus toward creating a tight-knit community.
“[The DEI committee] was originally intended to be a committee that looked inward at the senate to diversify the members,” Burgess said. “But this year, and a little bit of last year, [it] has been focused on facing outwards toward the student body and bringing in multicultural organizations… and letting them know what student government does.”
Part of that outward turn means giving more promotion to the student government allocation fund, according to Burgess.
“Belonging is a very broad word, but it’s really about connecting with people who are not always in the spotlight,” Burgess said. “For [student senate], that means things like diversifying the [student government allocation fund] and giving funds to different organizations.”
According to Burgess, these efforts have been working, and student senate has been receiving applications for funding from groups they wouldn’t have received before.
While Davis’ plans aim to improve life for those all across Baylor, Davis said she hopes that some of her biggest impact will be left on student government internally.
One of these impacts is Davis’ plan to “revitalize” the marketing and communications team within the executive branch. She acknowledged that to many students, student government can seem distant.
“My goal is that people know that we exist, and they know what we aim to do and how we aim to serve,” Davis said. “We are here to be the bridge, to be the problem-solvers on campus, and a lot of that has not happened to the level it could because there hasn’t been a robust marketing and communication effort.”
Since beginning her term, Davis has added a videographer to her team and plans to address more attention to external communication efforts. To further increase connection between student government and the rest of the student body, she appointed people who weren’t elected members with experience in the organization.
“I want people who are not part of student government to tell our story,” Davis said.
With all of these efforts, however, Davis said that her most important goal was the creation of a student government strategic plan.
“As the university releases their strategic plan, we want to develop our own as an organization so that we can move in lockstep with the university and show them how we are working towards the same ends that they are,” Davis said.
Davis said she knows it isn’t the most glamorous of objectives, but she feels it will bring the most positive change to campus.
“It’s not as beautiful and shiny as the other things, but I feel… it would ultimately be benefiting the most people over the longest period of time,” Davis said.
