Klutman takes over as Student Senate President

While sleeping on Iraqi soil, Andrew Klutman learned not to sweat the small stuff.

There, for nearly eight months the airborne infantry officer led a 40-member platoon. Later, he spent one year in Afghanistan, where he again served as a platoon leader, and also mentored, trained and assisted the Afghan government officials, police, border police and national army in a province along the Pakistan border.

Combined, these experiences gave UNMC’s third-year medical student a rare perspective.

From left: Student Senate Adviser David Carver, Ph.D., joins incoming Student Senate Vice President Jeremy Peterson and Student Senate President Andrew Klutman.

Klutman’s newest challenge: Representing UNMC’s more than 3,200 students as Student Senate President, where he leads nearly 40 senators.

As president, Klutman also serves as a non-voting member of the University of Nebraska Regents and is involved in a myriad of complex universitywide discussions such as tuition rates, legislative issues and faculty salaries.

“We count on the Student Senate to bring issues important to students to the leadership of the medical center,” UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., told senators Friday before they took the oath of office. “The president not only represents students, but participates in discussions that reflect what is important (to the university) and the medical center.”

As a graduate of West Point Military Academy, Klutman said his leadership revolves around three pillars:

• Integration — with the goal of increased cohesion and cooperation among UNMC’s different colleges;
  
• Participation — with a focus on the gifts and talents of each senator; and
  
• Preparation — with the intent that senators “logically and systematically present issues.”

UNMC Chancellor Harold M. Maurer, M.D., speaks with outgoing Student Senate President Brad Bohn.

Jeremy Peterson of Atkinson, Neb., flanks Klutman this year as Student Senate vice president. In 2006, Peterson participated in the inaugural class of the Summer Medical and Dental Education Program and then enrolled in UNMC’s radiography program before pursuing a medical degree. He is now a second-year medical student.

During Friday’s Student Senate Inauguration Ceremony, Dr. Maurer also paid tribute to outgoing Student Senate President Brad Bohn of Ravenna for his leadership during the past year.

“He did a great job of representing the students and the medical center to the regents and the community,” Dr. Maurer said.

“This really was a life changing year,” said Bohn, a Nebraska Air National Guard member who noted how the Air Force core values also apply to health care: integrity first, service before self and excellence in all you do.