Texas Tech’s Student Government Association has been in Lubbock all summer long working on getting things ready for the semester. The Hub@TTU took a moment to sit down with the SGA’s Chief of Staff Peter Brady to get to know him a little better. Check out what this Minnesotan has to say about his time at Tech and find out what he plans to do to help the students through the SGA.
What kind of work does the Chief of Staff do?
I guess my job is like twofold. So one of the big things I do is the Student Organization Representatives Council (SORC) which basically is the meeting that happens four times a year where all the student organizations come together with SGA. Then the other big part of my job is managing the daily operations of this office; making sure everything goes smoothly, helping out the executive officers, making sure our executive meetings flow well.
So what do you day-to-day?
Every week I set up the exec meetings with myself and the other officers; set the agenda for those, take the minutes at those, everything like that. It’s weird because a lot of what I do just kind of pops up. For example, yesterday Peyton emailed me he said he needed some reading materials on the Chamber of Commerce in the city of Lubbock because he wanted to get more information on that so I sent him that stuff. Every time we do speaking panels or speeches I usually prepare the talking points for those, help with stuff like that. There’s not a lot of day-to-day stuff.
Which mascot do you prefer: Masked Rider or Raider Red?
Masked Rider
How will your SORC meetings be different this semester?
Usually I give them information and this year we’re making it more of a learning experience as well. So we’re going to cover topics organizations have identified as areas they want to improve in. So things such as recruiting, fundraising, team building and event planning. So we get to teach them those things.
Favorite Texas Tech tradition?
I absolutely love at the beginning of the football game they fire the guns and the masked rider rides out in front of the football team.
What have you been working on this summer for SGA?
So what I’ve been doing is I’ve planned out all the SORCs for the year. I’ve set the dates, booked the rooms, have most of the programming locked in and all that. Luke [Cotton] and I have worked on the ambassadors program, I don’t know if he talked about that with you. We’ve been kind of setting up how we’re going to use them for football games, stuff like that. We’re going to be helping out with the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce with their Hub City BBQ so I’ve been organizing students to come help volunteer so we can build that relationship with the Lubbock community. One of the big things I’ve been working on with Peyton [Craig] is really trying to incorporate Texas Tech more with Lubbock as a community and so we’ve had the privilege of meeting with the chamber of commerce.
Most memorable Texas Tech experience?
My sophomore year when we pulled the huge upset on OU and I remember because I lived at an apartment at North Overton at University Trails and the streets just became packed with everybody celebrating.
What’s the most important meeting you’ve been a part of?
One of the most important meetings we have are usually with the chancellor and the president who are both actually very, very nice to us. I was actually very impressed with how student-centered Dr. Nellis is. So we’re really excited to be working with him.
What’s the most interesting meeting you’ve been a part of?
We had a meeting with the bookstore in the SUB which was interesting because I learned a lot of things I didn’t know about the university bookstore through them. You’d never guess that the university actually gets money back from the bookstore on every book they sell. I used to shop just at Varsity for my books but this year I’m buying at the university bookstore because I know my money, a portion of it, is being reinvested back into the university, into the Student Union.
What are your career aspirations?
I want to go to law school one day and go into business law and then maybe down the road one day after I’ve worked in the private sector hold public office.
What is one of your biggest goals this year?
I’d say our big goal, and this is kind of a team goal we’ve always had, is to engage the student body better. I think in the past student government hasn’t had as big as a presence as we’d like it to. So what we’re trying to do is be in campaign mode all year long. We’re getting out in front of students every chance we get so we can have a presence, make sure they know who are we are, what we’re doing, and that they can come and talk to us every time they have an issue.
How did you all overcome the controversy of last year’s elections?
I think we really did come together as a team. I’ve said it before that I think the team that came out of everything that happened is the best team to do this job.
Top three things on your bucket list.
I want to live in a big city for a while, so maybe when I go to law school live in like New York, Chicago or D.C. I’d like to go to Europe at some point, I’ve never really been out of the country other than Canada or Mexico which doesn’t really count. So maybe some traveling and I’ve always wanted to go skydiving.
Favorite Brady Bunch character.
It’s almost cliché if I say Peter. I like Bobby. I’ve only seen the show like twice.
What are you looking forward to the most with the start of fall semester?
Just kicking everything off that we’ve been building this summer that we can finally really start doing it. So I’m excited about that.
About Claudia Tristán
