ASWSU President Kasey Webster remembers walking to the French Ad with Vice President Tommy Simmons to formally meet President Elson S. Floyd on his first day as WSU’s acting president.

“Tommy was asking, ‘Are you nervous?’” Kasey said. “And I’m like ‘Tommy, this has only happened like nine other times, so yeah I’m a bit nervous.’” Webster shouldn’t have worried. Floyd soon demonstrated his enthusiasm for interacting with students.

Student Regent Billy Gordon’s first impression of Floyd came when the president was out greeting students on the Glenn Terrell Mall. As Gordon approached, Floyd saw him and raced over.

“He basically ran up to me and shook my hand. ... He’s one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met,” Gordon said.

Ryan Stolk, Residence Hall Association director of public relations, said Floyd came to their meeting in October and talked with almost every one of the nearly 40 students present when he arrived.

“I was very encouraged when he went around before the meeting and introduced himself to everybody,” Stolk said.

Damian Wagner, a former member of the ASWSU executive staff, was immediately impressed by Floyd’s intelligence and personal finesse when he met him last year.

In contrast to how the administration sometimes cares more about the politics of the situation than student interests, Floyd actually cares about students, Wagner said.

“As in a true, genuine, ‘these are my kids’ sort of way,” Wagner said.

When Webster accompanied Floyd and Tate on a tour of Greek Row, the students were excited to welcome Floyd to their houses.

“The Greek community is a group of students that very heavily needed to be engaged by the administration,” Webster said. “Every house he went to was just, ‘Come see the the house’ and all that stuff. It was great to see that.” Every once in a while Floyd stops by the ASWSU office.

“First time he walked in I was just like, ‘Oh man,’ because we didn’t know if [former president V. Lane] Rawlins knew where our office was,” Webster said.

Floyd cares about keeping students informed and getting their opinions, Webster said. Floyd told ASWSU about the merging of Student Affairs and Equity and Diversity over lunch one day this summer.

“He told us that, and he also said, ‘What do you guys think?’” Webster said. “And I thought that was very important because oftentimes you just get the memo that something happened, but you don’t really get to weigh in. ... I knew this guy was going to be good at that point.” Webster said Floyd has also been supportive in conversations about ASWSU’s ideas and initiatives, almost always ending with the president saying, “I’ll support you in this.” The Progressive Student Union was similarly pleased by Floyd’s support when club member Chelsea Tremblay sent Floyd a letter about the Worker Rights Consortium on Oct. 2. Three days later, his office returned the club’s call and asked them to come watch the president sign on to the labor rights organization the following week.

“We could tell he was genuinely interested in what we had to say,” Tremblay said.

Not all students feel their groups are as valued. College Republicans Vice President Alex Williams said Floyd paid too much attention to previous club stereotypes and didn’t give College Republicans a fair chance.

“He favors some clubs and organizations on campus over others,” Williams said.

Chris Clark, a member of Black Men Making a Difference, also wished Floyd was more involved in club activities.

At the same time, he said they realized Floyd’s full schedule would make it difficult to attend many student functions. Clark was impressed with Floyd’s drive and goal-centered attitude.

“He knows what he wants and what he wants to get done,” Clark said.

Webster said he’s heard very few complaints, though some are wary of the quick changes.

“The one thing I’ve heard is that maybe he’s doing stuff a little too quickly, but at the same time it’s his job,” Webster said. “In his defense, maybe the university has moved so slow on a lot of these things in the past we’re not used to these quicker decisions.” Though some compare Floyd to a politician with some suspicion, the comparison has become something ASWSU jokes about.

“We always talk about that, like ‘Dr. Floyd should run for president,’” Webster said.

While the ASWSU staff was in Washington D.C. for the student government conference, they wanted to get a picture of the staff in front of the White House with a sign saying “Floyd in ‘08.” They never got around to it, Webster said.

“But yeah, I’d vote for him,” he said.