USG starts work on fall agenda
The Undergraduate Student Government began work on many campus initiatives by meeting with administrators over the summer to kick off several of its school-year projects.
President Chris Cheng and Vice President Nehi Ogbevoen are setting out to make several improvements on campus and improve relations between USG and important departments within the university.
“A lot of relationships [with] some of the administrators had been lost in the last year or two. It was a big goal for us to build those again,” Cheng said. “It helped us prioritize what we want to do and we wanted to find out what kinds of goals [the university] wanted.”
These meetings led to several campus improvements already underway this summer, including the addition of bike racks and a bike parking lot near Parking Structure B.
Cheng said the bike parking lot, which he said should be completed by the end of the summer, will provide students with an area for safe overnight parking.
“That was a common goal between us,” Cheng said. “[The administration] doesn’t want the bikes kind of free-roaming.”
USG will also provide a monthly trips for students to venture off campus, inspired by the success of the L.A. Live tram — a project undertaken by last year’s administration.
“It’s nice to get somewhere around L.A. without having to borrow a car,” Ogbevoen said. “In October we’re going to Manhattan Beach. Once we told auxiliary affairs, they responded well.”
Ogbevoen said the implementation of the tram project was another example of why it was important for USG to communicate with university administrators.
“The advice we got from the administration was to start early,” Ogbevoen said.
The work has just begun, however, and USG still has plenty of issues to work through going into the school year. A $1 rise in the student programming fee, intended to cover a budget shortfall that was discovered last spring, has yet to be confirmed by the USC Board of Trustees.
“We actually created two budgets … We’re definitely ready for both scenarios,” Cheng said. “If we are fortunate enough to get that extra money. It will go directly to the funds that influence students the most.”
Cheng and Ogbevoen also began research on many issues they plan to begin dealing with at the beginning of the school year.
Among these is an improvement to the Lyon Center, a mission that previous USG administrations have undertaken. To get an idea of what changes they’d like to see at the Lyon Center, Ogbevoen and Cheng visited recreation centers at other universities.
“There was just more space — you can tell that they designed the building for students,” Ogbevoen said of the recreation center at Cal State Fullerton.
Overall, Ogbevoen and Cheng said they felt the summer was a success and are prepared going into the school year.
“I think the biggest advantage we had was meeting with all the administrators and getting advice from them,” Ogbevoen said. “All of them had a lot of input.”