To most, Mitch Dickey may just seem to be simply another student on campus, blending in with those around him. However, as a sophomore, Dickey was elected to serve as the next student body president for the Illinois Student Senate. 

Over the course of the last year serving as a member of the Illinois Student Senate, Dickey said he noticed the discrepancies between what the campus leaders wanted from the student senate and what the student senate was actually doing. Through his careful observation of these differences, Dickey believed he would be the best candidate for the presidency.

He joined the student senate at the beginning of his freshman  year and served as a chair for the Committee on Campus Affairs and the Committee on Community and Governmental Affairs. 

One of his goals as president is to increase overall campus awareness and involvement with ISS.

“I really want to get people that are really interested in the things that we’re doing … I want to make sure their voices are being heard,” Dickey said.

He believes the most effective way to increase campus involvement is through a trickle-down effect by first reaching out to campus leaders, committees and officers of RSOs.

“I think once you get all of the campus leaders, the people that students trust, involved, everyone else hears about that and then knows what’s going on and even maybe feels empowered themselves and know that their voice really matters,” Dickey said.

He has already met with Being Black at Illinois, Illini Democrats and others.

“I think one of the reasons Dickey won the presidency was because he listens to students,” said Vice President-External, Matt Hill. “He has a strong track record of listening to students, working with students and getting things done for students.”

However, his outreach doesn’t just stop at the local academic community. Dickey has met with student governments from Illinois State University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and members of the Illinois State Board of Education.

“We are working towards reaching out to our schools and seeing what we can do collectively,” he said.

Senator Rachel Heller, junior in LAS, supports Dickey and believes he “has a lot of passion.”

“I’ve known Mitch the past two years and I’ve worked very closely with him on several projects and I’ve seen his commitment and excitement from day one, when I met him,” she said. “And I believe he truly, truly wants the best for the student body and that he will do whatever he can to create the best environment for the student body.”

At the election meeting, several senators brought up concerns that attendance had been lacking at recent ISS meetings — an issue that Dickey wants to address during his presidency. 

“Part of the way you keep people interested and wanting to be involved is you pressure them,” Dickey said. “It goes hand-in-hand with the approach I want to take with committees, of getting people really excited … If there’s people on committees that are doing a lot of work and engaging in the work of the senate and we have senators from those same colleges who aren’t coming to meetings are engaging with student affairs, that puts pressure on them to do better.”

Dickey also acknowledged his concern for student debt describing it as “the core block” to be addressed. He hopes to have more lobbying and increased conversations with legislators, like the upcoming town hall meeting with Sen. Dick Durbin that will take place in early fall. 

However, Dickey described the budget as being “up in the air depending on what the students want to do with it.”

He commented on the new assembly of the student senate, stating that there was a big turnout at the orientation meeting with 15 new members present, who he said seemed engaged in learning about their new roles as senators.

“I am really looking forward to working with them this year,” Dickey said. “I am really, really positive of our senators this year and I believe they will be a very powerful force.”

After college, he hopes to join the Peace Corps and then either get a law degree or a master’s degree in public policy. In the future, he hopes to work in politics as a civil servant.

“I don’t see being student body president as a stepping stone, but as a reaffirmation of my goals, that I really do want to be a public servant,” Dickey said. “This has always been my dream, always something we talk about.”

Dickey has enjoyed serving as a representative of student interests.

“It’s really different in high school where you’re planning dances to college where you’re working on actual policies,” said Dickey.“I have a younger brother, he’s a junior in high school, and if there’s one thing I absolutely want to see done, it’s that he will have a better experience here than I ever did. And that we can say that, for all of our younger siblings and friends, we made Illinois better for them.”

Edward can be reached at [email protected].