During the Student Senate meeting on Tuesday, two different speakers spoke at the podium with two very different tones – one hopeful and the other despondent.
The first speaker, Jim Glassman, executive founding director of the George W. Bush Institute, opened the senate meeting with his speech about ways in which SMU and the George W. Bush Presidential Center have strengthened their relations.
The second speaker, junior Brad Nadmar, appeared before the Senate after it originally rejected his request for organizational funds.
While SMU relations with the highly publicized Bush Institute are on the upswing, Nadmar feels his student-funded organization deserves more attention.
SMU and the Bush Institute “are two separate, independent institutions,” Glassman said, “but proximity and history lead us to find ways to work together productively.”
An example of this productive relationship will be demonstrated in the Education Leadership Symposium today in the Collins Center. It will kick-off a research project that aims to emphasize the importance of strong leadership in improving student achievement.
The results of the research will be used to create a unique program that can be integrated into a curriculum for school leaders, and could possibly be taught in the Simmons School of Education and Human Development.
Another way in which SMU and Bush Institute relations have strengthened is that SMU is offering space on campus in which the Institute can conduct events.
“We’re working in virtual space,” Glassman said sharing space with an institution such as SMU helps the Institution attract important guests.
Glassman said he expects the relationship to only get better with time.
“We’re here for the long-term. We have a 300-year lease, after all,” Glassman said.
Then came Namdar’s turn at the podium. Nadmar, junior triple major in applied physiology and sports management, journalism and CCPA, was unhappy when he learned he would receive no funding from Senate for his organization Dream Big Soccer.
Namdar prefaced his speech with the fact that he was speaking with passion, not anger.
“Let’s be on the forefront of something bigger,” Namdar said. “I’m not asking for your money. I’m challenging you.”
Namdar’s organization is struggling to put together a day-long clinic for four hours on April 10 for children who live around the Vickery Meadow neighborhood.
Vickery Meadows is an area in which refugee and immigrant families surviving on the bare minimum live.
“We’re doing something for someone else, for another community,” Namdar said.
Namdar said he lowered the amount of money he requested from senate from $5,000 to $2,500. If he were to receive money for the organization, he said he would be able to conduct one to two clinics each semester and provide the children with gear, such as soccer balls and T-shirts.
“I think I have carpal tunnel from all of the e-mails I’ve been sending,” Namdar said.
Namdar believes that if he can get senate’s financial support, students and other organizations will decide to donate as well. By the end of the meeting, senate voted in favor of allotting Namdar $1,500.
He related his organization to the South African soccer team in the movie “Invictus.”
“People thought Nelson Mandela was insane for supporting the South African soccer team. He used sports too. Doesn’t matter what it is [though], it brings people together,” Namdar said.
