Meet the New PSGA President

By Summer Tyler

Nellie Duggan-Haas smiling inside the PSGA Conference Room. (Photo by Alex Del Cueto)

Nellie Duggan-Haas is a junior visual arts major with a minor in television theory and practice and the newly elected Purchase Student Government Association (PSGA) President for the upcoming fall 2025 semester.

They have been involved in the PSGA since the spring of their freshman year when they started as an office assistant. Duggan-Haas was able to get more involved with clubs and in the Senate and learned all about how the student government operates, as well as what could be improved upon within the Senate. They are from Buffalo, NY.

How did you get involved in the Senate?

"Spring 2023, I joined the PSGA as an office assistant. I think that was the first semester since Covid that the physical office was open again. In fall 2023, I joined the Outdoors Club E-board [Executive board] as the treasurer, and I joined the PSGA student senate. In spring 2024, the Coordinator of Public Affairs stepped down at the end of the fall semester, and so I took over that position. I also became the secretary for CAPES [Creative Artists Producing Epic Stories], which is a new club. So I'm currently the office manager and still involved with those two clubs."

What is the CAPES Club?

"It's like a comic-focused club. Occasionally, we read comics and discuss them. Most of what we do is make comics. We are actually having a big event with a bunch of other clubs that's inspired by Comic Con on Saturday, May 3, called 'Nerdvana,' so you will be seeing stuff about that soon. It's a newer club. We are hoping to do an anthology this year that we will hopefully have and give out at 'Nerdvana.' May 3 is free comic book day, so we'd be giving them out for free… It's more of a social thing where people get together, make silly little comics, and have a good time. Hopefully, with the anthology, we can have some more finished works in there; that will be the first time having published comics."

Duggan-Haas assisting Senator Nick Russo inside the PSGA Conference Room. (Photo by Alex Del Cueto)

Why did you want to get involved and take on the role of President?

"I think the Outdoors Club was one of the main gateways for me because it's something I'm interested in just as a hobby outside of school is hiking. Getting involved with that, I really enjoyed being a part of the community and feeling like I'm actually doing something to help the school and the student body. Being on the Senate was nice as well, especially at that time we were struggling to find senators, and so it was nice to be able to help. I think the student body deserves to have people working for them and to have student representatives who understand the experience of being a student at Purchase, not just the administration doing whatever they want. Of course, we don't have a ton of real power over administrative decisions, but it's still nice that we are able to provide lots of things like clubs, services, and The Stood; all of that is PSGA. I think that just being a part of the community, the PSGA has a lot of dedicated people; a lot of positions are volunteer, some are paid. A lot of people put in way more hours than they get compensated for. I wanna support people however I can."

What is the PSGA President's Role? What are your main goals for when you take over this position?

"I think in the President role, I'm gonna be trying to find that balance of supporting the rest of the team internally with the PSGA and helping them do their jobs better, while also representing the PSGA and the student body in meetings with faculty, staff, and administration. The President is the only role that focuses on things where you meet with the President of the College and get that opportunity to provide the student voice to the administration directly. The PSGA President is the Chair of the Executive Board, so I will be essentially overseeing the rest of the Executive Board. That includes the Student Activities Coordinator, the Coordinator of Clubs and Organizations, the Vice President, the Coordinator of Finance, the Chair of the Senate, and the Coordinator of Public Affairs. My goal is to not try to step on their toes, but I think that we do need to improve communication within those groups and I think because of my varying experience prior to being President, I do know a little bit about everything in the PSGA, and that will help me support people and ask the right questions."

From right to left: Nick Russo, Jasper Biski, and Duggan-Haas all looking at a laptop screen during a PSGA e-board meeting. (Photo by Alex Del Cueto)

What changes do you hope to make within the PSGA?

"I want to change a lot. I think that there have been tweaks over the years with the by-laws, but I think we need to do a serious revision, really considering what has changed, especially since Covid. It feels like five years out; we should be in a better place than we are. There are, of course, still challenges from Covid, and a lot of information lost because it's not passed down well. There's a lot of turnover in the PSGA, which in part is, of course, because students graduate, so in many positions, people only have it for one year, and then sometimes the training does not really happen. In recent years, there have been a lot of people resigning and a lot of people being impeached. I think that should signify a larger issue. I think if we're having so much turnover in these positions, it's not about the individual at that point; it's about the position, and we need to examine the structure of the PSGA and the structure of these jobs, and how can we change things to make people want to stay while also actually doing their job well. That's my main focus at this point."

What are you most excited about for this new role?

"Luckily, I know all of the people who will be on the executive board next year, some better than others. At least a couple of them I've spoken to about this, and they agree that we all want to go over things and change things, and so I'm excited about us working together collaboratively to do that. I think that advertising is a big issue, so we want to figure out ways to get the student body engaged, not just through email but also in a way that everyone can access. There's a lot of issues that can't be addressed, but I'm excited because I think that our board next year will be able to address them."

What are you doing now to prepare for next semester?

"Even though I'm not President, I already have some experience working with faculty, staff and administration. I'm currently in a shared governance work group through the college senate to review, address, and recommend solutions to improve the shared governance system at Purchase College. That refers to the ways that faculty, staff, administration, and students all interact and contribute to decisions made at this school together. It's tricky because the administration is the only people who really have power, so we wanna try to figure out ways communication can be improved, and maybe the administration can actually listen more to other groups on campus. I'm also in the Sustainably Advisory and Outreach Committee with faculty, staff, and administration. That's really nice to be involved in to know what's going on related to sustainability on campus. I'm excited, I think that all of those things are similar to what I will be doing in the role next year. Because I'm doing them, I'm very familiar with Patty Bice and now Kelly Jackson, various people who are involved in the administration or the President's Cabinet. I think they will be ready to work with me in a larger capacity next year."