The ample circumference of Matt Diteljan’s biceps betrays the love affair with the gym that he shares with Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. Unlike Sitch, though, Diteljan lives by the mantra gsp: Gym, strategy and planning.
These have become Matt Diteljan’s main approaches to the position of vice-president student life, and as the semester and his term come to a close, he feels this tactic has changed the dynamics of his position.
Diteljan said he tried to stray away from only planning events, and focus on creating plans and strategies to solve the issues associated with students and their campus experience.
“The students at this school really need strategic level thinking, because there are so many root problems,” said Diteljan, outlining engagement, health and wellness, as well as advocating a positive learning environment. “What I’ve really tried to do is move out of the events realm, and into the advocacy realm.”
An achievement in the past semester includes identifying issues around engagement and negotiating with the university administration to identify the gaps that are present, and creating and maintaining programs so that students want to be on campus. The Situation may have a “no-grenade” sleepover rule, but Diteljan is focused on including all types of students in campus life. Where more improvement is needed, however, is with more coordination with the su, administration and students to close these gaps, and he believes more work in this regard needs to be implemented in the future.
“Hopefully moving forward, we’ll be able to establish a better role at the university to combat those issues,” said Diteljan.
He may be able to look at a situation and develop a strategy to overcome the issues that arise, and of course more work needs to be done, but at least he isn’t flashing the students his abs.