SUNY Geneseo Student Association President Lucas Pastwik to become SUNY Student Assembly Vice President
Photo courtesy of Lucas Pastwik
Recently, The Lamron had the opportunity to sit down with the SUNY Geneseo Student Association (SA) President Lucas Pastwik to discuss his election win to become the next Vice President (VP) of the SUNY Student Assembly. Pastwik is currently a junior political science major with minors in history and anthropology.
Alongside being the SA President, Pastwik is a University Center Representative, representing SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Fredonia, Buffalo State College, SUNY Purchase, and SUNY Oneonta. As part of being a representative, he acts on behalf of both students' and campuses' interests by outlining their needs at conferences and lobbying events in Albany.
Pastwik spoke on the election process for the SUNY SA, saying, “every SUNY campus sends delegates relative to population to a conference in the spring, and at that spring conference, we elect a president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary.” Pastwik ran against Tivaun Cooper for SUNY VP, with both candidates being equally qualified in different ways.
The process begins with each candidate presenting a three-minute-long speech, essentially trying to “sell yourself.” Upon the conclusion of the speech, there is a “questioning period capped at four questions,” explained by Pastwik. When asked about how he felt during the speech and questioning period, Pastwik recalled it being “a lot more intense than [he] had anticipated.” After the questioning period comes to an end, the candidates wait in a different room while deliberations occur. After the deliberations, the Parliamentarian of the SUNY Student Assembly announced the winner, revealing that Lucas Pastwik will serve as the 2026-2027 SUNY SA Vice President.
When asked about his goals as SUNY SA VP, Pastwik spoke on how he hopes to continue to build upon the current foundation, as well as expand representative responsibility. He said, “As a representative already, I have firsthand experience as to what went incredibly wrong and what went incredibly well.” He plans to prioritize finding representatives who are both eager and capable because they are essential in ensuring information is properly communicated. He elaborated by saying, "That's how we get the information from the top down and then concerns and issues from the bottom up.”
He also spoke on his plans for cross-campus communication, something that he is extremely passionate about. This academic year, Pastwik prioritized attending the different campuses that he represents. Pastwik wants to encourage representatives to make more of an effort to visit the campuses for which they are responsible; he said, “Things like that are really simple to do because we have the money on the SUNY level to do it. The reps just didn't take advantage of it this year. This was a big problem because we had almost little to no cross-campus communication.”
Every new position comes with many challenges, and Pastwik cited the time commitment as being one of the biggest challenges he will face. As both the SUNY Geneseo SA President and now the SUNY SA Vice President, Pastwik possesses a lot of responsibilities. He will have to travel frequently, which presents the question of “How do I balance that with also being a student?” Pastwik acknowledges that this will be a challenge, but it is something that he has no doubts about managing. Alongside his own confidence in himself, he also has the support of many others: “I’ve been able to do it once [as SUNY Geneseo SA President] and I’m pretty confident I can do it again. I'm glad to say that Dr. Taberski, who's our advisor, has a large amount of confidence in me to do both.”
It is evident that Pastwik dedicates a great deal of time to these leadership roles, and when asked about what that experience has been like, he said, “I didn't expect to be this involved [when he came to Geneseo].” As part of being SA President, he also serves on the Campus Auxiliary Services (CAS) Board of Directors, College Council, and the Foundation Board. Being so involved has given him the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally.
Additionally, being in these positions has provided Pastwik with the opportunity to reflect on why he continues to pursue leadership roles. He spoke on how, during the recent spring conference, he had the opportunity to truly reflect on everything. He said, “You look around the room, and there's 300 or 400 people from across the SUNY system, and you see how frustrated people are with upper management.” Seeing how unsatisfied people are with the way systems are run has prompted Pastwik to better himself and “be the change that you want to see in the world.”