Eastern’s student body is one of diversity and variety.

Representing the entire student body necessitates many levels of interaction both on and off the university’s campus.

Kaci Abolt seems to understand the multiplicity of Eastern students well. Abolt’s commitment to the university finally paid dividends on July 1, when she officially took over the office of the student body president.

Abolt, a senior communications study major, has been an active participant in various programs during her tenure at Eastern.

As a sophomore, Abolt was directly involved in the university’s student government program, serving as a Student Senate member for two semesters.

However, Abolt said she was forced to resign as a Senator after her appointment as the vice president for student affairs.

Abolt served as the university’s vice president for student affairs during the 2011-12 school year, and she said the experience helped to prepare her for her role as student body president this year.

“Being on the executive board for a year definitely helped me,” she said.

Despite the many experiences as the vice president for student affairs, Abolt said she learned the most valuable lessons through the university’s Debut and Prowl programs.

“I was a Debut leader for two years and a Prowl specialist after that,” she said. “I really enjoyed working with Prowl. It helped me see how a team works, as well as how to run meetings and get things done.”

Abolt has also been involved in the Greek community since her freshman year.

As a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority on campus, Abolt said she served as her chapter’s vice president of finance for a year and has been active in the Greek life since coming to Eastern.

Following her nomination for the office of student body president, Abolt said she was required to complete a petition of 100 signatures from around campus in order to be placed on the ballot.

Abolt said she campaigned for election with the PULSE party, a governmental party run by fellow student government hopefuls.

“There wasn’t a lot of competition—not as big a turnout as we had hoped, but having the support of other candidates in student government helped,” Abolt said.

“The PULSE Party is not official. We only work together for elections,” Abolt said. “It’s not an actual political party, and we don’t vote on things based on the party. It just gets us all on the same page for elections.”

Abolt said because Eastern’s student government program is meant to resemble actual governments, her appointment as student body president did not take effect until the beginning of the new fiscal year on July 1.

Abolt said the transition between her two offices was easy: “I just had to move offices,” she joked.

However, with her tenure as student body president officially underway, Abolt said her first priority is filling the many different appointments for the university’s advisory board.

“There are almost 30 positions on the board, and most only meet once a month,” Abolt said. “Hopefully we can get our website back up and fill those spots before they start in August.”

Abolt also said she wants to start using OrgSync, an online portal for student organizations.

Abolt said the program is user-friendly, but costly.

“It’s really expensive, so we have to get support from the community. But I think it’s great for student groups,” Abolt said.

Outside of implementing OrgSync on campus, Abolt said she hopes to be more visible as an executive office.

She said she wants to revitalize the Student Supreme Court, a defunct organization last year.

As for her largest goal, Abolt simply said she wants to improve student government.

“It’s crazy that we have open Senate seats every year,” she said. “My number one priority is making sure each organization is always doing something, and going in a positive direction.”

John Downen can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].