Zachary Broughton is your president; he loves politics, the Red Sox and the University of Massachusetts. He goes simply by Zac.
Broughton is a senior, double majoring in political science and legal studies. He served two years as senator on the Student Government Association’s Ways and Means Committee, which funds Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) and last year he served as the Secretary of Finance for the SGA.
In April, Broughton was elected president of the SGA, and he has a vision for UMass’ future and an intelligent array of officers he is excited to collaborate with.For a third year in a row, he is a resident assistant, where he works with freshmen. His advice to all first years is to get involved and become passionate.
“Find it. Do it. Love it,” he said.
His own philanthropic passion has been expressed through his work with his fraternity Pi Kappa Phi. The fraternity is renowned for its charity work, especially with the “Push America” cycling events, which raise funds to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.
Concerning the SGA, Broughton’s main initiatives this year are to ensure that funds are best spent to aid RSO activities and to break ground on a new student union. He stressed an emphasis on increased student involvement throughout his proposals.
Broughton wants RSO funds to be more intelligently spent. He wishes to cut through an uneducated bureaucracy and allow people familiar with programs to decide how money will be best spent. In the past, senators alone would decide how to allocate funds. This was a difficult job for them without personal insight into what the organizations actually needed in order to function.
The SGA is also currently testing a new council to allocate sports funds.
“Club Sports Council will be run primarily by club sports leaders,” Broughton said. “They would know the needs of the clubs, [and] they will know what it is like to be in that type of RSO so they understand, and they can rank their funding priorities.”
If this pilot program is successful, a yet to be named cultural council would be rolled out to meet the needs of national, political and religious groups.
His foremost initiative, though, is to build a new student union. He sees a real separation between students’ needs, RSOs and what is available to them.
“If you try to reserve space right now in any of the buildings on campus, if there is an event that people have paid money to have or if there is an academic priority, students are kicked out and they cannot use it,” Broughton said.
“Our [students in] RSOs are very creative and very talented. They put on amazing events in facilities that are falling apart,” he added. “They deserve a building that they can call theirs so we can work with them to put on events that we haven’t done yet.”
Getting the ball rolling on this project is Broughton’s main goal during his year as president, so that future student governments can better aid the student body.
Michael Turner can be reached at [email protected].
