This week's episode takes an in-depth look at the Stout Student Association or SSA. Rachel and Emily are joined by SSA President Devin Dumke and Vice President Tsimnuj Xiong. Learn about what the SSA is currently working on, upcoming projects, and the various ways current students can get involved with the Stout Student Association.
Guests:
Devin Dumke, current UW-Stout student and President, Stout Student Association
Tsimnuj Xiong, current UW-Stout student and Vice President, Stout Student Association
Co-Hosts:
Rachel Hallgrimson
Emily Laird
View Additional Information about the Stout Student Association
Follow us on social media:
www.instagram.com/uwstoutpics/
www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-wisconsin-stout
Visit our website: https://www.uwstout.edu/
This week's episode takes an in-depth look at the Stout Student Association or SSA. Rachel and Emily are joined by SSA President Devin Dumke and Vice President Tsimnuj Xiong. Learn about what the SSA is currently working on, upcoming projects, and the various ways current students can get involved with the Stout Student Association.
Guests:
Devin Dumke, current UW-Stout student and President, Stout Student Association
Tsimnuj Xiong, current UW-Stout student and Vice President, Stout Student Association
Co-Hosts:
Rachel Hallgrimson
Emily Laird
View Additional Information about the Stout Student Association
Follow us on social media:
www.instagram.com/uwstoutpics/
www.linkedin.com/school/university-of-wisconsin-stout
Visit our website: https://www.uwstout.edu/
Hello, everyone. Welcome to inside stout, a UW-Stout podcast that focuses on the stories of students, faculty, staff, and the entire campus community. I'm Rachel Hallgrimson.
Emily:And I'm Emily Laird. This week, we're joined by the President and Vice of the Stout Student Association also referred to as SSA to hear how they're elevating student voices projects they're wrapping up for the year, the current election, and why they got involved with SSA, and the positive effects on campus if everyone knew what SSA does, then who they serve,
Rachel:Let's get it to it. Thanks so much. Both of you for joining us in the studio today, please introduce yourselves. Devin. You can go first.
Devin:Yeah. So my name's Devin Dumke, um, I'm a fifth year senior in computer electrical engineering. Um, and I'm the president of the Stout Student Association.
Tsimnuj:And my name is Tsimnuj Xiong. Um, I'm a fourth year senior. in computer and electrical engineering, just like Devon. I'm the Vice President of the Stout Student Association.
Rachel:I love that you're both computer and electrical engineering students.
Devin:Not a coincidence.
Rachel:Not a coincidence.
Devin:Not a coincidence.
Emily:Hmm.
Rachel:What does that mean?
Devin:I mean like, we're like, I think that's part of the reason why we know each other. We're just we're we're like twins.
Tsimnuj:The only thing that separates us
Rachel:brought you together
Tsimnuj:Is our music tastes.
Emily:Okay, whoa.
Rachel:Tell us now.
Emily:Yeah, where, and then I'm gonna, judge whose is better. I'm so ready. This is like American idol. And I'm g onna judge it. Let's do this.
Devin:I'll start first.
Emily:Yeah, please do
Tsimnuj:My Spotify playlist has eight songs in there.
Emily:Oh, okay.
Tsimnuj:Um, and it's called my repeat playlist<laugh> and over the past three years, I've put in eight songs into this playlist and I'm comfortable,
Rachel:Like, you, like...
Emily:And you take songs out. So you always keep it at eight or how does this work? I try to
Tsimnuj:I try to like, I've taken one song out. Um, but like the rest, like those eight, I will consistently listen to every single day.
Emily:I kind of vibe with that. Can you tell, like, elaborate for me,
Rachel:Maybe the genre who's
Emily:Who's in there? Who are we looking at?
Tsimnuj:Yeah. Genre is like so basic. It's the music you listen to on the bus back in middle school, the 2012 to 2016 bus.
Emily:Wait now, hold on. I dunno for, yeah. Are you talking about college? So, so what are some songs in your playlists?
Tsimnuj:Yeah, pop. Um, so recently I just added a song called July by Noah Cyrus, which I have been listening to nonstop on repeat for the last week and a half. Um, and they're, I haven't really listened to any other songs except for that one.
Rachel:I like her song that I re recently heard called Dear August. Which also has the next month in it.
Tsimnuj:Right.
Rachel:Yeah. Okay. So pop.
Emily:Okay. Yeah. So Devin, what do you got?
Devin:Um, you know, I think the difference in Tsimnuj and I's music taste is that his are unique and mine are more bland. I mean, I just like a lot of different type of music, you know? I'm not one of those people, like yo u a s k a t a party and it's like, what's your favorite type of music? Like, oh, anything but country, like I do have tastes like I'm a big, I'm a big Swifty. I love the Bea tles. I, I love Oasis. That's been my jam recently. Um, I just got, I guess I like a lot of different, other different types of music. I'll listen like a 23 mi nute long song or something. That's just like crazy abstract noise, and tha t's ju s t be yond...
Rachel:Yeah. I, I have a playlist that has one song on it and it's just like a 20 minute long sound of brown noise. It's like white noise, but lower. So you it's really nice list to while you're trying to focus. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, that's not all I list to.
Emily:I was okay.
Rachel:But I'm just saying, I think I relate more with Devin.
Devin:So there's been lots of times where like Tsimnuj and I were in, like the student government office are just working and like, I would just like play like another song that Tsimnuj hates and I'd be like, Chino love this.<laugh>.
Tsimnuj:I, I am so picky with music. Like I, I decide whether or not I like a song in like the first five seconds we sat in the SSA office hour. Yeah. Like the office for two, three hours just playing different songs. And in like five seconds, I'd be like, no, I hate it. Or like, yeah.
Devin:I think the only song I've ever got on him to like was like, Feel Good Inc. by...
Emily:Oh my god, by the Gorillaz. I do love the Gorillaz.
Devin:He doesn't even like that entire song.
Emily:You gotta listen to more Gorillaz. It's really good stuff.qYeah.
Rachel:I, I wanna suggest that SSA start a Spotify channel and then every, every, um, what's, what's the word called? Like you're in the 52nd.
Devin:We're in the 52nd Congress.
Rachel:Congress. I think every Congress like director and senators should have their own playlist of like eight songs.
Devin:Right.
Emily:That's it.
Rachel:And that's from Tsimnuj, he's this, you two are originating this and then every year they all add their own playlist. Anyway, just an idea. We need to talk about SSA, but I'd love to continue this conversation after we hit
Emily:Record. When we stop hitting record. Okay. So without further ado, what is the SSA?
Devin:So the SSA is the Stout Student Association, which is the student government at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Um, so we were founded in 1923 um, as just like the governing body for students. And we've gone through many different additions and what that structure looks like and the type of work we do. Um, but for the past 50 or so years, it's been pretty consistent. We, um, we're the official voice of students. So anytime we're the administration or local state, federal officials are looking for the opinion of the UW-Stout students, we're the ones there, we're also advocate for students. So, um, you know, things like academic policy, student policy, um, just anything that helps, that's impactful in the lives of students. That's what we're involved in.
Tsimnuj:Yeah. And we, we go off of, you know, saying, we, we like to elevate student voices or elevating the student body voice. And a lot of things we do is student focused. We wanna improve the student experience here at Stout while they're here at Stout and improve the experience for students who are about to come to Stout. So future student, um, some of our projects and plans are set for a couple years in advance. We're, we're slowly implementing things for students to come in and kind of enjoy themselves. Um, like one of the projects we have is the, the U-Rec renovation. That'll be coming i n i n the next couple of years. And this is something that will really benefit students as when they come in, they start to see, you know, a new, a new, u m, complex and a new gym and different things that they can experience here. A nd that's just one of many things that the SSA is a part of and things that we want to, you know, change for students and better the student experience here at Stout.
Rachel:How do students get involved with SSA slash, how did you two get involved with SSA?`
Devin:So I always say this and I think everyone always rolls their eyes.<laugh>.
Emily:I'm ready.
Devin:You know, as long as you are enrolled as a student, you're already a member of SSA, you know. If you compare it to like a student organization on campus, like you officially join their membership. that's not the case o f t he student association. Yeah. U m, you know, by merely being enrolled as a student, you're a member of our organization. U m, so obviously there's different levels of commitment a nd there's different offices, so there's different opportunities for folks to get involved, but, you know, you are a part of our organization just by being a student. U m, so, you know, if you w anna get a re involved t hat we have a lot of different opportunities. U m, and I think it's something that we've done a really great job o ver the past five or so years is creating different opportunities for different levels of commitment. Some of them are just like, Hey, are you interested in, um, more equity in student wages? We'll just fill out this brief, like 60 second survey, and we'll send you an email invite you to our next meeting. Some of it's like, you need to run for office, something like that. Um, so like the position that Tsimnuj and I are in. Definitely, there's a few more steps to it. So going back to how I got involved with the Stout Student Association, um, it was after my first year at UW-Stout. Um, I didn't really feel like I had maybe connected on campus yet. Um, I think I, you know, going back to be my little shy guy. U m, I had just had a hard time finding my place on campus. A nd so my sister, my big sister, u m, was already a Senator within the Stout Student Association, and she was, and she was like, Devin, I know you're gonna love this. So she got, u m, her and then two friends just wrote me in for a position i n, u m, t hat was one of the few positions that no one was running for. A nd I got the offer and she's like, you gotta accept. I'm like, okay,
Emily:What position was it?
Devin:It was the Senator of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Management. So like the longest position title ever. But, u m, yeah. And so then April of 2018, that w as when I got my start. And so it just kind of took off from there.
Emily:That's awesome.
Rachel:My goodness.
Tsimnuj:Yeah. And I started second semester, my sophomore year. Uh, Devin got me into it. U m, so he kind of dragged me into becoming the, or, you know, signing up for the Senator of technology position. U m, and I, I went in with the, t he thought of improving our campus printers because back in the days, our paper cutters o r printers were just not g ood. And I would spend a lot of my time throughout the day, troubleshooting the printers a nd getting t hem to work for students and all t hat stuff. And one of the things I just really wanted to change was getting new printers. U m, and surprisingly that the technology committee that I sat on, u m, implemented that change. And now we have those paper c ount printers all over campus, which is, I've never had an issue with it personally. U m, and they're just so nice to use c uz y ou can print wirelessly anywhere you want and get your prints at the printer whenever you want to. So.
Devin:I mean, most people who are interested in, you know, going into like an elected office within t he Stout Student Association, they're just in it, like they have like one issue on campus t hat they wanna solve. And it goes from there that's not everyone. U m, but it's surprisingly a decent number of people. And like t hey just kind of g rows from there and they find something new that they're interested in and they just balloon from.
Rachel:So that's okay to feel like you have one thing and that's what brings you to the position?
Devin:Absolutely. Um, you know, there's no, there's no like set, like this is what you need to be in it for to be in it. Um, and so we have a lot of people in it for different reasons. Um, and I think that's part of what makes it great. You know, when I first got involved in student government, I didn't even have anything in particular mind I wanted to do, I guess, other than just maybe just be involved and get closer connected to campus. Now from there, u m, I had joined one of our SSA's committees that was focused on providing funding for student organizations. And from there, that's where I just found my love was hearing all these different student organizations coming in with their requests and providing funding to them. So that's one thing that SSA does is we provide around$400,000 each year to student organizations. And so my start SSA was being involved in that.
Rachel:That's a lot of money.
Devin:I t i s.
Rachel:I didn't know that it was that much.
Emily:Yeah. I didn't realize that either.
Devin:It it's a, it's a lot of money. Um, yeah, that's just directly allocated, allocated by the Stout Student Association. So we give it out to the hundred and fifty plus recognized student organizations each year.
Rachel:Oh, very cool.
Emily:So we kind of talked about your story of joining SSA and I'm just curious, cuz Devin, you kind of hit on this, but how has SSA really supported your time here at Stout or changed or molded it?
Devin:I mean, I think it's made me be more confident. Um, and it it's really changed the way I view how a university operates. Um, you know, I think the, like to, for the typical student, you know, like they, they take their classes, they maybe participate in org, they have their friends and stuff. Um, but I think like there's just so much going on behind the curtain that they don't understand. And for me, like I'm just a person who loves learning more about any thing. Like that's just o ne, one thing I just loved about s tudent g overnment w as being able to really understand how a university operates. U m, and I mean, in so many ways, along the way, it grew me to be a leader. It g rew me to just gain s o much more appreciation for our university. U m, and for t he, t he people who operate within it, u m, you know, nothing but positive experiences t o s ay a bout my time i n t he Stout Student Association.
Tsimnuj:Yeah. And I'll say the two things that kind of shaped me to who I am here at Stout is, um, working for University Housing. I still currently work in University Housing and then joining the SA. Um, like Devin said, the SSA allows us to kind of dive in and get a backbone of the things that happened behind the scenes and things that a lot of students don't know about. Um, and this happens with, you know, any initiatives or any changes and stuff that happens here at Stout that, you know, if you join this in government, you, you get the chance to know about and you get the chance to directly talk to, you know, the provost, the chancellor, the vice chancellors, um, at our meetings. And so we usually invite them over once or twice per semester, just so we can have an open form with them and ask any questions we want.
Devin:Um, and such, and that's something really unique to being in the SSA as well, is that you get to take this information and tell, tell all the students, you know, and they're they surprised like, oh, I didn't know, like we were doing this and that. Um, and stuff like that. And I didn't know, the SSAwas in charge of allocating$400,000 or if they were, you know, in charge of creating and purchasing solar panels on top of the Price Comments, like all the big stuff that happens behind the scenes for students comes from the SSA and it's such a great experience. Being able to be the person to tell her the students, you know, this is what we're doing, or this is the time that we put into the SSA and this is the outcome we get for students. And if, if I could just add to that, you know, I think we all have this idea of maybe like what, like student council looked like in high school. U m, it was very much like sure there was like student leadership in there. U m, but it was really like led by whoever was like the advisor, w hoever t ough t ime with running it within student government, you know, our power comes from state s tatute, you know? Um, s o it's actually the Wisconsin State Legislature who really creates our or gan... created our organization, ga ve u s the powers we have, like I have a professional staff advisor. Um, w ho's absolutely wonderful. Um, b ut by no means like, do I take, take my orders from them or anything? Um, y ou know, there have been many times where, like I've said,"thanks for the advice." And then went a different direction. It's an e ntirely a student-led student-run organization. Um, a nd so we really are truly in the dr iver's s eat. And so it's, it's kind of in contrast to maybe what people's experience th ere w ith like a student co uncil i n high school or something.
Rachel:Well, with that in mind, tell us a little bit about some of the things that you're moving on right now to make happen.
Tsimnuj:Um, yeah, so I, I'll say some of the recent motions and agendas that we passed. Um, I guess I'm, I'm very into technology. And so like the technological portion of the SA is what really excites me and gets me interested. Um, and so recently the SIM technology committee approved funding and purchased, um, smart rocket book notebooks for students to use. And so if you don't know what a rocket book notebook is, it's a,
Rachel:I do not
Devin:Reusable notebook that you can write on the notebook and you can scan it with your phone.
Emily:I do know what those are!
Rachel:I've seen those on the internet.
Tsimnuj:And this was kind of like a kickoff to our initiatives to hopefully be a little bit more sustainable. Um, because on average, a student can run through multiple notebooks while their time, you know, going to school here at Stout. And so with the usage of a rocket book notebook, they can save that time and get all their notes, uh, digitally online. And that way it makes it saves paper. It's a lot cleaner to use and it's a lot more organized cuz you no longer have a notebook. It's a little thin like 18 page, you know, plastic notebook that can be reused every single day.
Devin:Yeah, I mean, going from there, um, I mean there's just so many things and even all of the ones that we can talk about, like our stuff that we've maybe have had five minutes of involvement in, because there's so many people in our organization sure. That like everyone's doing their own thing, which is part of what makes us great things that I've been involved with or things that I, you know, really wanna highlight. You know, one thing just recently was, um, we worked alongside the faculty and administrators to amend our university still by policy to include with more information on who students should go to, if they have a concern about a course or their instructor. Right. Um, you know, so many of the students I talk to they're like I ask, you know, if you had a concern about a course, who'd you go to? They say, well my advisor or my program director, you students, the provost, the chancellor, not one of these people is the correct person.<laugh> right.
Rachel:It's the chair,
Devin:Right? It's the department chair. It which students, I don't think are very aware of because students don't live in departments, they live in programs. Exactly. So we worked with the faculty, um, worked with administrators, worked with a lot of folks to really make that happen. And it was a wonderful project and I mean, that's really how university governance works. It's working with the other folks on campus. Other projects that we've done that might be a little more stylish. Um, ongoing stuff, um, was, you know, we're talking about putting together more off-campus housing resources for students. Um,
Rachel:That'd be really nice.
Devin:Yeah.
Emily:Well, expand on that. What does that mean?
Devin:So, you know, it, it really kind of started with, um, you know, a desire to maybe put together an entire website of like listings in the local area. You know, that's something already offered as like a private service. But if you think about it, those companies are, you know, those landlords paid to be put on the site. So if there's like a negative comment about something, it's a, it's a, they're more likely to take it down. They're more landlord friendly than student friendly. Whereas if there's something done directly by us, um, you know, we can completely just have the student's best interest in mind. In addition, another i n, u m, initiative that we're pursuing is providing legal services to Stout students. So this isn't like a lawyer who'd go represent you in court o r something. But if you had a question like, Hey, I'm about to sign this lease. I had a question like, what are my legal rights here? O r something like that. They can answer that.
Rachel:Cool.
Emily:That's really, really great.
Devin:So, you know, just someone that you can, who's on campus maybe once a week for a few hours, you can go chat with them. Um, and just kind of get their perspective on something they're not serving as your like official attorney, but they're just there to provide, um, guidance and advice.
Rachel:I suppose. Maybe if you're in a situation where you needed to have an attorney, they could give you advice on next steps on how to get one.
Devin:Absolutely.
Rachel:So, you know, like, they're a gateway to more resources.
Devin:They could even be the answer to the question. Do I need an attorney? Or is this something, you know. And that's something that It's taken a long time to get going. Um, just because there's been so many hurdles and obstacles and sure. Um, you know, we needed the governor's approval on this. Oh, you did. And we were asking for the governor's approval in April of 2020. Wow. The governor was a little busy in April of 2020. So it took a, he was a little while, um, to get that, um, do you have that now? We do not have it now. So it's an ongoing, it's an ongoing process. You know, when I took over as president, it was just starting up. Um, we are here two years later and we're almost there. Yeah. I'm, I'm hoping to on the 53rd Congress, when, you know, the pandemic has really shaped us and limited the amount of things we could do. Um, yeah. And I I'm hoping for next year that the, the next, um, president vice president can come in and pick up this initiative again and possibly complete it. Um, as the vice president, as the vice president, I was kind of in charge of running the off-campus housing initiative in the legal services initiative. Mm-hmm<affirmative> um, and funny enough for the off-campus one I've never lived off campus yet I'm running this program
Rachel:Or off, well, I'm sure you could meet a lot of people that deal. So,
Tsimnuj:And very cool right now, I, I'm actually looking for off-campus housing. Okay. Um, for next year and I struggling because some of the listings only show a picture of the building and you can't really see the rooms inside. And so like one of the things that we require in the off-campus housing website that we're hopefully going to implement is to have pictures of every room and updated pictures of every room and everything that's included. So a student, when they go on the website, they can just look at all the rooms instead of having to go in for showing or stuff like that. And we want it to be more student focused. Um, this is not meant for us to make money it's meant for us to give, students an easier time finding off campus housing. Um, and so when it comes to complaints and all that stuff, we review those complaints and we directly go to the landlords and, you know, figure out all those issues. Um, and for the legal services, um, we're kind of of at, at standstill right now, um, it's, we've been reaching out to many lawyers and attorneys around our area and it's just not really working out because of the whole COVID aspect and having them come in person for two to three hours. And so we're currently reworking that and making, checking to see if we can make this a virtual thing, or if we what we need to change in order to get an attorney at Stout, that students can go to.
Rachel:If every student knew about SSA and what was possible by being more involved with SSA and keeping up with your meetings and the things that you're talking about, what would campus look like?
Devin:You know, I think we would live in, in a much better. I think there would be a much better student experience for students. Um, you know, one of the things that I spend a lot of my time doing as president of SSA, you know, and kind of the most visible face is meeting with students who have concerns and then taking those concerns and then being advocate for them, um, which I'm happy to do, you know, I, I really view that as part of my role and part of all of our roles. Um, I think if students knew the types of levers that SSA gets has at its disposal and all the things that our organization is capable of and the things that we do do, you know, I think they'd be interested in getting involved themselves. Um, I think if student have of concern, they wouldn't just, they would be more likely to pass it on to us. U m, and t here'd just be a lot more stronger student advocacy.` U m, you know, we, haven't always done the best, I think, at communicating what w e do as an organization, u m, and the types of things that we can do for our students. U m, but it's something that we're looking to get better on. You know, one o f t hing we just recently did was c reate a new position entirely focused on marketing and, u m, you know, interacting and interfacing with campuses or s orry, interfacing with our campus. So that's, that's a, that's something that we've identified as a problem. We're, we're looking to fix it. I, I think that if more students knew about what we would do, I think th e, our campus sh ould b e a lot better place.
Tsimnuj:Yeah. I agree. I think there's, I've been in a lot of different committees in my, you know, my time here. With a lot of staff, faculty, professional workers, and they're always looking for student input. And a lot of times it's...
Rachel:Yes, we are.
Devin:...just me or a couple other, students who give our input. Um, and you know, if everybody knew about the SSA you, what we did, what the power, you know, the power we had to bring change here at Stout, we would be looking at a much different university, um, focusing on all those specific issues that a lot of students have and kicking off initiatives and fixing everything. I think with more student input, you know, it gives the professional staff more things to go off of and bring and change. And so I think it's, it's a very powerful tool that we have here at the SSA. Um, and we try to promote it as much as we can to a lot of the students and say, if you have any concerns, bring it up to us and we'll try to help you address those concerns.
Tsimnuj:Um, and we do it every, every Tuesday night during our caucus, um, which is a time for senators to come in and talk about any campus issues that they have, and there's consistent issues everywhere on campus that they always bring up. And then we talk about how can we improve this? Who do we need to contact to, to, you know, bring change. And so with seeing, as you know, there's 7,700 students that know about the SA and have ideas, um, I'd be very excited to see, you know, the different things that we can have here at Stout.
Devin:I mean, even just like the, the committees that SSA appoints students to, um, I don't think people really understand how many different committees there are that kind of have different controls on campus. So, you know, one example is, um, as we talk about dining services, um, you know, there's a Dining Advisory Group, um, and there's room for students to serve on that. And so if, as a student, like you didn't care about anything else, you just cared about dining. And making s ure that, you know, those, those burgers were always available or something, I don't know.
Emily:But at that meeting they serve food and they're usually sample food.. They do. So if you're on the Dining Advisory Committee, you're the first person that gets to try a lot of new menu items that are of come down the pipe or new products that Mountain Dew or Starbucks is rolling out that might be available on the campus. So it's a great way to get to t rial, l ot o f new things before it even lands in Blue Devil Market or in Price Commons Cafeteria. So those are kind of those things, like you said, those hidden gems that students don't realize how involved they can actually be on campus from a point of getting first access to things that no one else knows might b e c oming available.
Devin:I didn't even know that was a thing.
Emily:It's a thing.
Devin:Oh my gosh, that' awesome.
Emily:Gosh, I know.
Rachel:Yeah. Well, I'm really impressed by everything that SSA is doing, I think, and I wish all students would get involved. The student experience would be excellent. And when students know exactly where to go, when they have a concern about something and they feel comfortable going to that person or that group, like that's the best possible option, scenario in any place, especially on a college campus where they're living their life, like they're eating, living, working out, going to school, working. All within just a little campus, the idea of presenting a concern can seem scary.
Emily:So then Devon, you talked about being an advocate for students. So how do students get in touch with voice, their concern or things they wanna address with SSA?
Devin:Yeah, so there's a plethora of options. Okay. Um, so, you know, number one, we have an office on campus it's located right within the student center. Um, the Memorial Student Center, um, it's open during most business hours. There's usually a student there. You can go in and talk to. We also, you know, have our, our office phone, which is available on our website. Um, we have an email just ssa@uwstout.edu. Just send it there. Um, I route it to the right person, depending on what the question is. Um, cause we have a lot of different people. Um, you know, we also have different events and opportunities for people to kind of relay their thoughts and opinions on different categories. Um, so for example, this past semester we've had, you know, three or four different what we call tabling events. So we're locate writing the student center. Yeah. We'll have like a table set up. It'll have a whiteboard with something on it. Maybe giving out like promo materials or something. Um, one, we were asking students about, you know, their, how they feel about their technology needs on campus. Um, another one we were talking about student wages with folks, we were also talking about folks, their academic experiences, you know, how do they feel about their academic experience? Um, you know, what could be done to improve it? Um, so yeah, opportunities like that. And, you know, I think we'll have more, more opportunities in the future as we continue to build upon that, you know, some of those opportunities weren't always available during, um, kind of the heights of the COVID pandemic and the restrictions that needed to occur. Um, but as we kind of move out of that environment and look to the future, that stuff's coming back and, u m, we are really excited to provide more opportunities for students to relay their thoughts, opinions, concerns.
Emily:Well, I can't thank you both enough for joining us today. I certainly feel more educated on SSA and all that students can get involved in. Yeah. Rach, would you agree?
Rachel:I do agree. And I also know more about these two individuals, music taste.
Emily:So, so much, but I still have so many questions. Me too. We're gonna stop recording and we're probably gonna keep you guys in the studio and ask you lots more, but if you wanna get involved with SSA, uh, certainly we'll link some stuff in the show notes. So you can get involved with these amazing guys and this amazing group. We wanna thank our guests and our listeners for joining us today, Rach, tell people where they can find us.
Rachel:Of course, if listeners have any good topics for future episodes, or just wanna connect with us, you can follow us on social media, Instagram@ UWStoutpics and Twitter@ UWStout and by searching University of Wisconsin-Stout on Facebook and LinkedIn. You can subscribe to Inside Stout on apple podcast, Spotify and Google podcasts. We'll see you next time when we share even more stories that go Inside Stout.