Matthew Resenhoeft

Justin Hentges had heard the advice before.

But when Eric Kasper, UW-Eau Claire’s previous student body president, explained to Hentges what he would experience during his stay in office, all Hentges did was shrug it off.

“(Kasper) would say `You’re gonna remember this and this and this, and you’re gonna hate your job when this happens and love your job when this happens,’ ” Hentges said. “And I was just like, `What are you talking about?’

“But everything that he said was going to happen happened,” Hentges said while sitting in the president’s office with Erin Brandt, who has served as his vice president for the past year.

The countless emotions the two have felt during this, their final week in office, not to mention the tiresome hours they’re still working, have combined to make a memorable week.

“It’s so weird, but it does just seem like yesterday that we were in here talking with (reporter Adam Campbell) when we were starting out,” Brandt said.

Just about every experience the two spoke of when discussing their year leading Student Senate was preceded by a “I know this sounds cheesy” or “It’s so clich‚,” but would be followed always by a “But it’s totally true.”

“(Kasper) told me what to expect, but you can’t describe what this job is like,” said Hentges, whose term will end Monday. “You have to be ready for anything; if you expect something to happen a certain way, it’s probably not going to happen that way.

“In the morning you wake up and you’re not going to know what each day is going to present,” he said. “And even though we bitch about it, at the same time I think that’s the appeal of the job.”

The two’s trip to the office was anything but conventional. Hentges’ e-mail formally asking Brandt to run as his vice presidential candidate came when Brandt was in the midst of a trip that took her around the world.

Having been in the mountains of Nepal for about a week, Brandt didn’t receive the e-mail for a while.

“He was freaking out,” Brandt said. “But it’s not like I had e-mail access.”

Once Brandt was back from her trip, she started working on the campaign almost immediately.

A hotly contested two-ticket race resulted in a win for Hentges and Brandt over Colin Clark and Kelly Witkowski. Witkowski was the running mate for Andrew Oettinger in this year’s election and the two will replace Hentges and Brandt on Monday.

The campaign was a stressful time for the two, and it didn’t help when The Spectator editorial staff endorsed the Clark/Witkowski ticket.

“I think we both took it as pretty personal,” Brandt said.

Hentges said that after reading the editorial, he thought they had no chance of winning the election. But after thinking about it, he decided to turn the tables on the issue and use it as a positive.

“I don’t think it was necessarily a good thing, but we did use it as motivation,” Hentges said.

Once in office, the two felt some pressure having won such a closely contested race. Hentges and Brandt said they put a lot of care into choosing their directors and simply chose to work their butts off.

“We had a meeting and I told all of the directors that we needed 150 percent,” Hentges said. “And we got 200 or 300 percent. I’m very proud of what we did.”

Hentges and Brandt thanked the administration, senators, directors and students at large repeatedly throughout the interview.

“It’s nice to see shared governance work,” Hentges said.

Brandt will remain active in Senate, but this is Hentges’ final term. He plans to study abroad in Australia in the fall and graduate next spring.

A year ago, Hentges would have told you his post-graduation plans were to move on to more school.

But now he isn’t sure what his life will bring him after graduation, though a career that involves some of the governmental and leadership roles that his presidency has required is likely.

Both Hentges and Brandt aren’t worried about their unfinalized career paths. Their experiences on Senate have taught them to deal with change, and an uncertain future doesn’t frighten them.

“But 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue wouldn’t be too bad,” Hentges said.