Eric Chalmers: Leader, Visionary, and Outdoorsman

Name: Eric Chalmers

Major: Political Science with Honors and Minor in History and Economics

Year: Senior

Hometown: Tempe, Arizona

Spirit Animal: Wolf (fiercely loyal but gentle at the same time)

Eric Chalmers is a current senior at Seattle University, who is known for serving as this year’s SGSU (Student Government of Seattle University) President.

As President, Eric has led initiatives and projects including creating the “We the Redhawks” Petitioning Program, reforming the State of the Undergraduate Survey, and creating the new Students with Disabilities Representative position for next year. This year, he and the rest of the SGSU team have been hard at work to ensure that we as a student body embrace and take ownership for our school’s identity and the overall student experience.

Throughout these four years, Eric has also been involved with SU men’s tennis team, mentoring at the King County Juvenile Center, and serving as an Orientation Advisor. He currently balances his time singing with the Chapel Choir, working on his honors thesis, and of course, his most important job—being the president.

While he is greatly involved and has a busy schedule, Eric never fails to stop and say ‘hi’ and have conversations with others, never forgetting the people he represents. This is one of the many reasons why we think Eric Chalmers is the epitome of a campus celebrity.

HC: What has been your overall experience as this year’s SGSU president?

Being the president has been one of the most enriching experiences I’ve had in my 22 years of being alive. It’s been an honor to serve as the person in charge and attempting to represent the interests of 4,300 people. But, at the same time, it is a huge task and when I think about it, this has definitely helped me to understand what it means to be a representative. You want to be effective with administration and also with students but often times they don’t always intersect. You have to try to make the students’ interests work with the administration but not compromise the fact that you represent students first. It’s a very delicate balance and it’s been fantastic getting to be president for this student body.

HC: What is your favorite thing about Seattle University?

At a meeting the other week, Father Steve said, “Here are the three things that Seattle University does best: academic excellence, service and justice, and the student experience. You get 10 points so put the points where you think we need the most improvement.” We tallied up all the points and tied for academic excellence and student experience. But coming in last was service and justice, which implies that they, too, see SU as a service and justice institution. That’s my favorite thing about Seattle University. I am very proud of it because we are a service and justice institution. We have conversations on this campus that are incredibly challenging – we challenge each other as students and as a campus community

HC: As a senior, what is one of your goals before graduating?

That’s the funny thing is I can’t really think of anything else I want to do before graduating. I’ve done so much here and it’s hard to think of something I wish I could do, which is very satisfactory. I do want to go backpacking in the Cascades, though. I’m a closet outdoorsman. I’ve been stuck with a lot of work, but I really wish I could have gotten out more.

HC: If you could give the rest of us at SU a piece of advice from something you’ve learning here at SU, what would it be?

As an OA for two years, I would always give my students my 3 points to having success in college:

1.    The first is to care about academics because they matter. That’s what you ultimately came here to do.

2.    Second, make sure the people you call your friends aren’t just people you party and get drunk with. Your friends can be those people, but there’s also a necessity to have a bit more substance there as well. That’s the struggle of college, too, is to find that substance. But once you do, its that much more rewarding.

3.    Third, this is the cliché part, but these four years go by fast. I remember when I was sitting in your spot and talking to the seniors and its so funny because now, I’m looking at getting a job and looking into going to law school and I have a long-term girlfriend. Once those things start falling into place, its weird. College becomes more of an abstract concept. Make sure you’re not just going and seeing the sights—make sure you’re conscious about it because it goes by fast—really fast. I think this is the time to jump off a cliff and see if you can fly. And if you crash, this is the time when you can also get back up.

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• Leader
• student