Hard man to follow
This time last year, Dean of Student Life DeL Beatty was shocked at a dance. No, it wasn’t suggestive language, lack of clothes, dirty dancing or somebody showing up drunk. Beatty, College of Eastern Utah’s dean of students, became aware of one man’s strong presence over CEU.
That strong presence came from Andrew Hardman. He was voted as the 2008-09 CEUSA student body president last year, and it came as no surprise as the attendants at the dance chanted his name as he won.
This archived article was written by: KC Smurthwaite
This time last year, Dean of Student Life DeL Beatty was shocked at a dance. No, it wasn’t suggestive language, lack of clothes, dirty dancing or somebody showing up drunk. Beatty, College of Eastern Utah’s dean of students, became aware of one man’s strong presence over CEU.
That strong presence came from Andrew Hardman. He was voted as the 2008-09 CEUSA student body president last year, and it came as no surprise as the attendants at the dance chanted his name as he won.
From the first appearance he made during the school year dressed as a Nacho Libre character to next week’s inauguration ball, he will leave CEU with the highest respect from students and teachers. He endured long meetings with board of trustee’s over budget cuts. He also helped fight the CEU-USU merger to keep the schools separate.
Hardman has the ability to stay calm and help everybody in any given situation. During my short interview with Hardman, he kept referring to how much he loved CEU and CEU students.
Willie Woodruff, newly elected student body president, has some big shoes to fill. He was asked how he felt trying to measure up to Andrew and simply replied, “I can’t be Andrew, but what I can do is take the love he had for CEU and his ability to be friends with everybody and build on it.”
Hardman’s advice for Woodruff? “Build a love for what you do, and be there for CEU.” Being CEUSA president isn’t easy, but Hardman said he felt “it was the right thing to do,” he almost felt like he was called to do it. Long nights, long meetings, plus being a student was just the beginning.
None of us can begin to imagine how busy and how much effort he put into making CEU a better place. Even his student government adviser Todd Olsen said, “Andrew came and kicked some butt in everything he did.” Andrew is BYU bound next year and said if he had to do it all over again, he would “want another year to take what he has learned this year and implement it to make next year even better.”
Hardman leaves CEU a better place, a better community and a closer student body. But more importantly, Hardman left his heart and soul at CEU.
