Meet the new student body VP: Brendon Jonassaint

Ahead of last week’s election results, The Tab UF sat down with the new University of Florida Student Body Vice President Brendon “BJ” Jonassaint to learn more about him, his candidacy and what he will bring to the University of Florida.

Tell the readers a little bit about yourself.

How is it going ya’ll? My name is Brendan Jonassaint. I am a third-year Health Science major from Okeechobee, Florida. Some of my involvement so far at the University of Florida has been my role as a Preview Staffer, and then I became a Preview Coordinator the following year. I’m also a Florida Cicerone. I served on the Student Senate, and also on the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I am also very involved with the Black Student Union and I am Vice President of my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

Why did you choose to come to UF?

For me it was about family and legacy. My mother, my uncles and my cousins came here, so for me it was about continuing what they started while adding my own spin on things. I was also born on campus, so that helped.

What’s your favorite spot on campus?

My favorite place, which is where you can find me the most, is the Reitz Union. My reasoning is because I love being around students. Being around people gives me my energy and the great thing is, it’s never the same people here at the Reitz. Just being able to be around so many different students gives me great energy and I love it.

What are some of your hobbies?

Some of my hobbies include playing basketball, playing tennis and football; those are some of my favorite things to do. I love playing video games, obviously. I love playing 2K, FIFA and Madden. I also like listening to music and dancing — not with the whole choreography thing, but just free-styling. I enjoy it because I get a lot out of it and I think other people do too.

What’s your favorite bar or club in town?

I just turned 21, but I don’t even go out like that. But if I had to pick, it’d probably be Rowdy’s because they have that basketball thing in there. So you can just shoot around as well. I don’t go for a specific scene.

Describe FSU in one word

This is…you know, I’m trying to be nice because I have a lot of friends that go there. I’d probably say, you know, second option. That’s what I think of, a backup plan.

 

What’s your best memory of your time at UF?

My favorite UF memory is probably my entire summer after my freshman year in which I was a Preview Staffer. Being on campus every day, and being able to help people everyday, as well as being around 41 other great individuals to work together towards one goal is something I wish I could do over again. Easily my favorite memory from UF.

What is one thing you wish you could change about UF?

I would say to make sure every student that comes to UF feels that they have a group to support them in whatever they do. At Preview we preach that, but it is very easy to forget about what you learn. So I would say making sure every student knows the resources they have available to them. On a lighter note, something I would change about UF would be to make it closer to Okeechobee so I could go home more often [laughs].

This question might be a little silly, but would you rather get attacked by a shark or an alligator?

I would probably say alligator as well because the alligators and I, we’re close. Just being Gators in general. I grew up with alligators. I would never even be attacked by an alligator. So I’m not even worried about that.

All right, let’s get into campus politics and campus government. What will you bring to the Vice-Presidency and UF student body in general?

First thing as Vice President would be to make sure I have a very diverse cabinet, whether it’s the Chairs or Directors, who represent people from all realms of campus. They would be able to consult with me to put on programs for all students on campus because you know, I could never know what is best for all students on campus. If I have a diverse group of people around me, they can help me know what issues are going on so we can take care of them properly.

Besides that, I would just like to make UF a more inclusive environment. Recently, there has been talk about the decline in black enrollment. It’s not just about bringing in more black students to the university but it is about retaining them as well.

The last thing would be more educational resources for sexual assault on campus. That’s a very serious issue that we’ve fortunately seen a decrease of instances lately. But being in a large campus such as this one, it is difficult to prevent or predict everything that might happen. So, being able to mitigate what has happened or what will happen to make this campus safer for students is definitely a priority of ours.

Why did you join the Impact Party?

I joined Impact to make sure every student is onboard with the mission of moving forward together. That’s something I think our party does really well and I don’t think I can say there is a party that does it as well as we do when it comes to including all the students on our mission.

What will you do as Vice President to make student government more understandable and more accessible for students to learn about what’s going on?

I think this goes back to educating people around us. If you take a look at our executive ticket, we have very involved students in all realms of campus, so we will be able to spread the message of student government to everyone here. One thing I’ve always said is that it’s not all about us. It’s about explaining what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, not pushing parties or candidates.

So as I was trying to find more about the Impact Party, I actually came across a Facebook that is called Stop Impact Party on Campus. The members of the page are “Fed up with being lied to and manipulated” and accuse student government of being 83 per cent Greek, not diverse, corrupt, and power hungry. Do you think that’s indicative of how student government has been run? Is it the current status quo? Is that a fair characterization of your party? How do you respond? 

I’ve definitely seen that Facebook page and to me the page is, just, I don’t know of a better word, but it’s a wreck to me. The page obviously doesn’t correlate with our goals, and they may have been able to say those things about past parties before, but for them to put that on Impact and attack people the way they do on that page is not something I stand for. I really do not agree with it. I don’t really pay too much attention to that page and what they’ve posted recently, but one thing I can say is what they post is not true to the current state of campus. We’re supposed to look out for each other, not cyber-bully each other.

To wrap it up, what’s your message to the student body?

I’m one of the most open students you will meet on this campus. As Student Body Vice President, I am charged with the duty of improving student life programming, so you have to resonate with all students on campus. I’ve done this as a Preview Staffer, and working with all types of students on campus, whether it’s Innovation Academy students in Preview or Honors Program students. We, the Impact Party, know how to get the things done that the students want, and we hope to be able to do that in our administration.