Hayden Bentz is the new Students’ Association Vice President.
Hayden Bentz, a sophomore, was chosen as vice president by Trinity Peterson, who became President of the Students’ Association (SA) after the resignation of President Nick Grote last semester. The senate unanimously voted for Bentz to fill the position, and he was officially sworn in at the emergency meeting during finals week last semester.
As president, Peterson had to pick the new vice president, and she felt that Bentz would be the best for the job.
“Frankly, Hayden was kind of the obvious choice for vice president. He just showed really good potential, he was on the senate, you know came on as a freshman first semester,” said Peterson. “He’s a really hard worker, very organized, and just all around a great person.”
Bentz served as a senator at large during his freshman year and was appointed as the finance chair when Grote was in office.
“I applied during the at large process of last year and it’s kind of funny to think now that I’m in charge of running that at large process for this year as a sophomore,” said Bentz.
Bentz says he is looking forward to “soaking everything in” and is thankful for the opportunity to serve as SA vice president.
“She truly could have picked anyone and she just felt that I would have done the best job. I’m very very honored to be given the opportunity to serve in this capacity,” said Bentz.
Peterson thinks Bentz will bring a fresh perspective to SA through his majors and only being a sophomore since last year’s positions were filled by seniors.
“He’s a human biology and business economics major so he’s not political science which I think is a really good opportunity to bring in some college of natural sciences which is a pretty small college,” said Peterson.
Peterson said she’s excited to serve with Bentz this year, and she couldn’t run SA without him. “I think we make a really good team; we balance each other out very well,” said Peterson.
Bentz said he’s excited for the year and all the things SA has planned for the school. One thing Bentz is looking forward to is implementing the electric scooter that was discussed last year. He says SA is hoping to have them on campus soon.
“We feel like that will provide a good service to students and affordable means of transportation around campus and around the community of Brookings at large,” said Bentz.
There are also plans to get the scoreboard placed on the end of Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium that would face the students section, according to Bentz. He feels this will be a big benefit to students on game day to enhance the experience for attendees.
Bentz says he loves being a student at SDSU and getting involved. Besides being the vice president of SA, he also plays the trumpet in the Pride of the Dakotas.
