Editor’s note: Noah Hackbart currently serves as the Director of Governmental Relations for Northern Iowa Student Government.
The Northern Iowa Student Government (NISG) is the primary advocacy organization for the student body of the University of Northern Iowa. A large portion of that advocacy is enacted through the organization’s student Legislative Liaison Team (LLT). This is a team of UNI students who interview for positions that fluctuate in size from year to year. Applications for the team are open to students from all areas of campus. As Director of Governmental Relations for NISG, it is my job to lead the team when we make weekly trips to the Statehouse. Team members this year include senior Aaron Burger, senior Molly Scott, junior Jalen McNeal, junior Tristan McDonough and freshman Alli Webster, and they all come from various areas of study, as the team is open to everyone.
No trip to the Statehouse is ever the same and each day consists of a new challenge, a new connection or a new experience. Our team gets up bright and early on Wednesdays and makes the two-hour trip to the State Capitol in Des Moines in our well-known purple polos. We spend most of our time in meetings with House and Senate leadership, connecting with our local legislators and speaking with legislators whose districts make up UNI, the Cedar Valley and its surrounding communities. We also meet with members of the education appropriations subcommittees from both chambers as they set appropriation and funding levels for each of Iowa’s public universities.
For context about UNI’s overall governmental relations operations, the university has its own State Relations Officer who works for the Board of Regents office and sits on the University Council and within the President’s Cabinet. Each regent institution gets its own State Relations Officer, but they often work in tandem as the regent system is tight-knit with similar priorities. However, Iowa State University, The University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa have separate officers as each institution has unique needs in the eyes of the state. For example, UNI is the state’s only regional comprehensive university and has different needs than its other public university counterparts. The State Relations Officer works with UNI senior leadership and the Board office to prepare for each legislative session.
The NISG Director of Governmental Relations position serves in the Student Body President’s cabinet and is more the advocacy arm of the student body and not the university administration. LLT is also the advocacy arm of the student body and each year our agenda is set depending on what pressing issues students across campus are talking about. One of those issues is mental health. This overarching problem has touched many of us and continues to grow. In meetings with student leaders, students clubs and organizations, and with leadership from the Student Health Center and UNI Counseling Center, it is a problem we must always be working on. This session, our NISG Upper Cabinet has been working with the student governments at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University on a joint one-time funding request to the legislature for mental health resources on our campuses. This request made its way into the official request to the state by the Board of Regents and the work for its advocacy falls to the Legislative Liaison Team. Last session, LLT followed and supported the counseling compact, a bill that was eventually passed by both chambers and signed into law by the Governor. LLT efforts in the past have supported efforts to fund and update the ITTC and pass medical amnesty for students. We are very much a proactive team and we do lots of research and find data before we present asks or information to legislators.
This is a non-partisan group of UNI students that take time out of their busy schedules to advocate for their peers and make a difference for everyone on campus. Funding the regent universities is paramount to the survival of these institutions and supporting funding efforts for more mental health resources is something we will continue to work on throughout this entire session. UNI Day at the Capitol, which is held on March 5 of this year is another great opportunity for students to meet their local legislators and explain the importance of public higher education in the state of Iowa. For updates on what we are doing for you as a student government, check out our Instagram @northerniowastudentgov or our website at nisg.uni.edu. We are here to support you.
