She’s at almost every gathering of LSU’s Student Government leaders. But K.C. White is not a student; she’s a staff member. White talked about her position as associate dean of students at Tuesday’s hearing about SG elections.
So what exactly do you do?
One of my primary responsibilities is to serve as one of the advisers to Student Government.
Other responsibilities come into play in helping to oversee the Center for Student Leadership and Involvement. That’s where we work with all our student organizations to help them to involve members, to get active in the community, to help register events and to navigate their way through LSU’s policies and procedures to make sure they’re all in compliance.
In what way do you work with students on a day-to-day basis?
That’s the majority of my time. In terms of time with students, I would say it’s at least 75 percent of my job. The other 25 percent is working with staff who also work directly with students.
What is your role at functions such as the SG hearing Tuesday?
One of my roles is to try to ensure hearings are fundamentally fair. That means working with our Student Government constitution, our rules of court, our election code — try to help them read the policies and interpret the guidelines.
We advise. We don’t direct, we don’t impose — we often play devil’s advocate to help students to critically think about the issues at hand… I don’t write legislation, I don’t interpret law. We help them to advise, because that’s what it’s about — student involvement and student leadership.
What is the importance of student leadership such as SG on campus?
That’s a fun question for me, because that’s my passion. As an undergraduate student, these are the years where you get to learn so much about yourself, and that primarily comes through what you’re doing within the classroom academically as well as what you’re doing co-curricularly outside the classroom. And some would argue you spend more time outside the class – think about the practical knowledge that you gain on the job.
So in terms of Student Government, they have tremendous responsibilities, tremendous authority, tremendous pressures… So whatever you choose to be involved with, whatever you choose to become a leader within — do something. There’s something out there for everyone, so it’s a matter of finding what your passion is, what your skills and gifts are and how those can be accentuated.