Fighting poverty, boosting health care: How UPUA’s new president hopes to improve PSU student life
Rising Penn State senior Najee Rodriguez, University Park’s newly elected president of the undergraduate student body, swears he doesn’t want to become a politician.
The national security major insists he has no desire to make a political career for himself. Instead, the student who once balanced after-high-school jobs at Chick-fil-A — 30 hours weekly — and earned his way to Happy Valley on a federal scholarship says he just wants to make a difference.
And, as the first openly queer person of color to be elected president of the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA), he’s coming with a number of big ideas for the 2022-2023 academic year.
“It comes down to the fact that we’re at a tipping point in Penn State’s future. I wholeheartedly believe that,” said Rodriguez, who ran and won unopposed with vice president Sydney Gibbard, based on preliminary results. “I think this is going to be the reorientation of the direction of Penn State with the new president that’s coming in, Dr. (Neeli) Bendapudi — which has an opportunity to change a lot, in terms of priorities of what people want to see at Penn State.”
Rodriguez and Gibbard want to focus on policies that center around empathy, equity and empowerment. Those goals aren’t just in the abstract; the pair have created specific platforms, hopes and step-by-step processes:
- Universal non-emergency health care for PSU students: For students in need of check-ups or non-emergency care, Rodriguez and Gibbard believe Penn State should follow the lead of other Big Ten schools and make such services freely available to students, especially those not on their parents’ insurance plans. The UPUA officials believe that could be done by raising the student activity fee, currently about $255, to also encompass this — although an exact estimate is not yet available.
- $15 minimum wage for students and student unionization: Rodriguez and Gibbard would like to advocate for both of these elements, saying a minimum wage could be done piecemeal like in Florida and that unionization could include residence hall workers.
- Unit to address student poverty: Even trustees such as Jay Paterno have acknowledged student poverty as an issue, and Rodriguez-Gibbard would like to take further steps to tackle the issue. That means creating a unit that would boast caseworkers and employees to help guide students living in poverty through college, helping them navigate public assistance and supporting them however possible.
- Having a second student trustee: Right now, there is just one Penn State student on the board of trustees. Rodriguez noted that, shortly after the Jerry Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal, the UPUA president at the time called for a louder student voice — so this isn’t new. “Even if you don’t completely sway the vote, the voice is the most important part,” Rodriguez said. “And it’s realistic.”
Rodriguez doesn’t boast the same straight line to Penn State like many students do. Raised alone by a teen mother, Rodriguez moved around often as a child. He experienced a rocky life — mourning the murder of one of his friends in Allentown, sometimes living with his grandparents in Florida and working the maximum number of hours he legally could during high school.
For too long, he said, students in leadership positions didn’t share similar ideas or his life experiences. That’s nothing against them, Rodriguez said; it’s just a product of students living in poverty who might’ve only had time to seek part-time work and not political office. Because Rodriguez is in a unique position, he said he plans to make the most of it — even if he wants “nothing to do with politics after graduation.”
“The help that I received, I want to give back,” Rodriguez said matter-of-factly.
Rodriguez spent the last three years on the UPUA, the last of which came as vice president. He researched the bureaucracy around his goals, read books on higher education and is now aiming to be realistic on what can be accomplished.
Maybe, Rodriguez acknowledged, all of his goals taken together are too lofty. Maybe they can’t all be achieved in a single year. But, if they can’t be finished, he said, they can at least be started. Change has to start somewhere, after all.
“I really believe in our land-grant mission and supporting an affordable education ... and, if I have the ability to bring those voices to the direct table and fight for advances in equity and justice as a whole, that’s something that needs to be done,” Rodriguez said.
“And this is the time to do it.”
