“Bulldog” Dupuis Takes Fight to Trustee Board: Q&A with PSU’s New Student Trustee

James Kelly

He/Him

News Editor

9/19/24

In the midst of a conversation led by PSU President Donald Birx and Plymouth Town Manager Scott Weden about mitigating Pirate Party, Ethan Dupuis decried counter-programming efforts. “I don’t personally think [counter programming] works,” Dupuis said. “I don’t think sober parties actually garner any support. I don’t think anybody wants to go to a sober party, at least when they’re at college.”

After only one official Student Senate meeting in his new role, Dupuis’s tenure as University System Student Board Trustee has been as advertised. Dupuis promised to shake things up. In December, 2023, Dupuis called the Student Government “an apparatus for pettiness… stuck in a Mobius loop of dickery.” While protesting the Student Government’s policy on public meetings and recordings, Dupuis said Student Government “is not a club. It’s a clique.” So he took them on from the inside.

In March, 2024, Dupuis was elected Class of 2026 Representative at-large. In April, he was elected USSB Representative. Following his election as USSB Trustee this month, he told The Clock he would be an “outspoken” dissenter. 

Dupuis, a Junior double majoring in history and political science, also serves as president of PSU Republicans. He was officially elected USSB Trustee on September 6th, 2024, with 73% of the votes in a five-way contest. The following is a transcript of The Clock’s interview with Dupuis after his Trustee election, edited for length and clarity:

The Clock: Tell me about why you ran for Trustee this year, and why you ran for Representative last year.

Dupuis: One of the things I ran on was taking away our parking passes. If you have a “failure to display” ticket just because you forgot to put up your parking pass, you’re nailed with a $75 fine. So instead, we should do what Keene State is doing. Keene State has stickers. We should have stickers. You just put it on for the year and you forget about it. You don’t have to worry about putting it up or losing it. 

But there are a couple key things that I would like to address on the Student Trustee level. We have declining enrollment across the board in the University System of New Hampshire, and I think we have to have creative solutions for that. My idea is including some of the public trade schools, and giving them easy access to our state universities. We can’t really solve the enrollment problem by increasing the acceptance rate. When you increase the acceptance rate, all you get is more people who are not equipped to go to college, and then they quit, they drop out. That doesn’t really help, and it doesn’t make our institutions look good. 

Another thing is, there’s been a big push in the University System to pull a younger base of professors, like Kelsie Eckert and Jason Charrette. These people are at the top of their games. You go to their classes and they’re really awesome. That’s a really good way to keep retention up. Because when you go to a good class and you have a good professor, that changes everything. 

A key way to keep that younger base – people who are at the top of their game – is childcare. Our childcare system is part of the Elementary Education and Youth Development department. If someone is looking for a job, trying to work at a state university, they’re going to look for the most competitive offer.  If you want the best professors, you should be more competitive in the childcare market. I’m viewing childcare more with a private look. And a way of keeping our childcare sustainable could be charging more. We have pretty low rates in the childcare center. Instead of having that in the red, we could raise rates to get that into the green – make money instead of lose money. 

The Clock: Were you able to make progress on any of those initiatives last year?

Dupuis: I was elected to the USSB for this year; the election for Student Trustee was still up in the air last year, there were some questions. Now that I’m on the Student Board, I’m just trying to see what I can do that’s achievable. Right now I’m in the phase of listening to people and seeing what they want done. I already met some of the Trustees. One person told me to just sit and listen. That’s not really my style. I’m more of a bulldog. I want to advocate for what I want to advocate for. I do have a conservative bent, and I’m going to be looking for a lot of things in that respect.

The Clock: How do your responsibilities change as you move from to Trustee from Representative?

Dupuis: The University System Student Board, it’s like an advisory committee. As Trustee, I sit on both the University System Student Board and the Board of Trustees, so I actually have a say now. I actually have a vote.

The Clock: How does your experience last year as USSB Representative inform how you approach your goals this year?

Dupuis: Achievable goals. People always try to grasp for things. Like free tampons, which I think is a cool goal. But how are you going to actually do that? Where’s the funding going to come from? I mean, I’m for it, it sounds awesome, but they don’t produce a plan. In my position as Class Representative, I saw a lot of this. It just seemed ceremonial.

The Clock: Student Life has put tampons in the Mary Lyon basement, at least in one of the bathrooms. So it’s certainly not ubiquitous, but maybe there’s a foundation there. 

Dupuis: There’s a need for it, obviously, but they just get taken almost immediately. 

The Clock: How has your experience outside of Student Senate, including with PSU Republicans, informed your goals as Trustee?

Dupuis: The cool thing is, since I’m pretty involved in state politics, I actually met a lot of the Trustees beforehand. I understand that being conservative on a college campus isn’t always the most popular thing, but I’m representing everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are. I think it’s about results and what you can do to better the student experience. 

The Clock: I’m going to ask about a few specific issues, and I’ll start with one that The Clock has a self-interest in, but that you’ve certainly been involved with as well: The First Amendment. What will you do, as Trustee, to protect First Amendment rights on campus?

Dupuis: As a Republican, I’m a free speech absolutist. I don’t think there should be any regulation. 

The Clock: New Hampshire’s higher education is the worst funded in the country, and so PSU is in a sort of perpetual state of budgetary crisis. You don’t have very much power over the budget, but if you did, what would you prioritize?

Dupuis: If I could prioritize where the funding goes, I think I would focus on competitive rates for high-quality professors. And also, if we’re dealing with a budget crisis, I would suggest focusing on – this is getting controversial – the majors that produce more of an impact, leaning on STEM. 

The Clock: Can you elaborate on what you mean by impact?

Dupuis: Something that’s marketable. Somebody who can leave PSU and get a job pretty quickly. 

The Clock: Spring Fling cost $130,000 last year. Do you think that’s appropriate? 

Dupuis: It’s a give and take for Student Experience. It’s a marketing cost. And the funny thing about Plymouth State is part of the marketing is coming from Pirate Party. It’s funny how that reputation almost encourages kids to come here. But I do think Spring Fling is part of the student experience, and it’s something people see that increases their likelihood of going to PSU. It’s showing that PSU has something meant for students. On the contrary, when they have exorbitant parking prices – and limited parking – and I’m hit with a ticket because I forgot to put out my parking pass, I think, “do they really want us to stay here?” What is our retention rate going to look like if they nickel and dime me every time I forget to put up my parking pass – that’s where my sticker idea came from. 

The Clock: When you’re in Student Senate and you’re considering funding requests, what is your process for deciding their merits?

Dupuis: It’s about being smart with the money and seeing the biggest bang for your buck. That’s why we encourage clubs to come forward with a well prepared presentation. And with that presentation, you really have to lay out how you’re going to use the money, who’s going to use the money. I mean, sometimes we can’t afford to send 11 people to Washington, D.C.. 

The Clock: When you’re put in a situation where you have to make a tough call on a CEA (conferences, events, and activities) request, what kind of things are you evaluating?

Dupuis: We look at what we’re anticipating the rest of the year to look like for CEA requests. And that’s why we ask clubs to get them done early. The sooner we have a clear picture, the better we can allocate that money properly. 

The Clock: It can feel like Student Senate only exists to serve its advisors. Is there a role for dissent in the Student Senate?

Dupuis: Well we’re gonna find out this year because I’d say I’m pretty outspoken in that respect. Our advisors always say that they’re backseat drivers, they’re just giving us the barriers. I understand what you mean. That’s why I really respect [former PSSS Treasurer] Erin Johnston, by the way. She was – no matter what – she was really quick. And I kind of want to replicate that.