In his role as director, Todd Cox serves as the primary university advisor for Student Government Association and its elected officers. Cox shares his perspective about being an advisor to this group and what he’s learned about championing the Volunteer experience.
From the outside, advising student government looks like a tangle of agendas, amendments, parliamentary language, budget lines, and room reservations. And all of that deeply matters and is of paramount importance to the student experience. The daily work that is seen on the outside of this relationship isn’t the whole story though. The longer I advise student governments in my career, I have learned that the real impact happens in between these details. True advising, at its core, is mentorship. It’s looking beyond the student government position to view the whole person–a student who achieves victories and faces doubt, balances coursework with leadership and familial responsibilities, and is preparing for the future.
Beginning with each new administration, one of the first conversations we have with student leaders is what an advisor is and what an advisor isn’t. Advisors aren’t there to be the hero of the story and hand students the right answers but to challenge them to look at new perspectives, ask hard questions, and prepare for even harder conversations. The role of an advisor is to widen options and shrink anxieties that naturally come when working within complex institutions. We push them forward and serve as connections to tools, people, and opinions they may not have considered or seen before. Most importantly, we tell them that all this is secondary to our primary mission: ensuring students feel seen, heard, and know they matter. The best leaders have the care and support they need to be healthy students.
The most impactful conversations that we have with student leaders don’t take place at a Senate session or town hall, but in the moments in between all of these. It’s the quick check-in that turns into helping a student process balancing school with an ill family member back home. It’s the first-generation student leader navigating a new realm of unknowns as they prepare for graduate school applications. It’s acknowledging that a student leader did not get the desired outcome on a piece of legislation but that they showed confidence and values-driven leadership as they navigated the complex conversation. These conversations are where change happens with student leaders and they gain the confidence needed to truly lead.
While these conversations might not be about the tangible aspects of student government, these conversations are what students carry with them to better serve and lead their peers. How to ask hard questions and look at complex systems turns into being a strong student representative on a faculty committee. Learning how to manage conflict in a healthy manner comes out during a heated Senate debate. Learning to hear and empathize with other students’ perspectives leads to impactful conversations with university administrators in creating an unparalleled Volunteer experience. Strong, thoughtful advising starts with conversations around self-awareness, resilience, and the ability to hold competing truths, allowing these ideals to flow into tangible, real-world skills that apply well beyond their time as a student leader.
The common thread through all of this is relationships. Advising as mentorship isn’t about managing performance or expecting perfection. It’s standing side stage, steady and present, offering honest feedback and challenging the student leader. Most importantly, it is celebrating the student as a person more than a position. It’s remembering that the student is more than a title—they are someone’s roommate, someone’s family, someone who is braving college curriculum while taking on demanding leadership roles. When the student feels seen as a whole person, and in turn cared for as a whole person, they lead differently. They lead fiercely and confidently. And as advisors, the greatest reward is when we get texts months down the road about former student leaders using the skills they learned in their first full-time job, or that they led a difficult conversation in their graduate program, or they just made someone else feel seen and heard because they felt that way as a student.
When asked about his experience during advising, Chase Darwin, current student body president, said, “The impact of advising has gone far beyond student government. The advising team immediately stepped into a true mentorship role for me—in student government matters, my career development, and just me personally. As I enter senior year and I am weighing what comes next, whether that be graduate school or the workforce, the advisors have helped me to think through these steps and support me as I prepare for the transition.”
Advising student government is quiet work with loud outcomes. Success isn’t measured by perfect agendas but the steady growth of those who carry them. As an advisor, you get to stand side-by-side with student leaders who find clearer values, develop compassionate confidence, and face complexity head-on. While the students in these positions change yearly, what lingers is the posture of curious, compassionate, and accountable leadership that they carry into their classrooms, careers, and community. What a reward to us as professionals it is to get to stand by year after year and watch students learn, lead, and serve.
