USG officers hope to increase awareness


The new Undergraduate Student Government executive officers are gearing up to boost USG’s presence around campus by reaching out to incoming students, offering more programming and taking advantage of its space in the new Ronald Tutor Campus Center.

The outgoing USG administration made significant efforts to bridge the gap between USG and students, and the new executive officers hope to continue this trend.

“A lot of times students don’t know who to complain to,” said incoming Chief of Staff Maya Babla. “We want to be seen as as valuable a resource as possible.”

Senior Director of Communications Elizabeth Trower said her biggest goal is to assist USG President Chris Cheng and Vice President Nehi Ogbevoen with their platform. To do so, her first move will be to create informational booklets and pamphlets to be handed out during summer orientations and Welcome Week.

“We want to make USG’s name more present on campus,” Trower said. “Some students don’t have a solid understanding of what USG does, so we’re going to put out more information. We want to get future Trojans excited so hopefully that will carry through their four years here.”

One pamphlet will describe the various branches of USG and how to get involved. The other will include advice from upperclassmen to freshmen and will feature students discussing how USG impacts life on campus.

“This is really a dynamic grassroots campaign,” Trower said.

Program Board Finance Director Chris McAbery and Executive Director of Program Board Richard Pizano have already begun their outreach. Program Board issued surveys to students during Springfest to gather information about what kind of talents students are interested in.

USG Treasurer Brian Anderson said he hopes increasing USG’s publicity will lead to more student groups applying for funding. Anderson specifically hopes to publicize the new online funding application system.

“We want every student organization to know they can get money from USG,” Anderson said.

The executive officers hope USG’s location in the new Ronald Tutor Campus Center will help make USG more accessible. They also hope to play a role in integrating the campus center into student life.

“We want to ensure that everything at the campus center is running smoothly and making sure students know the spaces available,” Babla said. “With the campus center up and running, USG will be more accessible.”

With the campus center’s new facilities, USG and Program Board will be able to put on events that cater to a medium group of students — about 200 to 300 students — rather than only large or small events.

“We’re going to start programming events that utilize the new venues,” Pizano said. “It will hopefully bring more dynamics to the students and diversify our programming.”

The move to the new campus center also means USG and Program Board will be sharing a new office. McAbery said it will be interesting to see how the dynamic between USG and Program Board changes with the move.

“There’s been a bit of a disconnect between Program Board and USG,” McAbery said. “We’re looking forward to sharing space so that everyone in the organization will be better updated and more familiar with what’s going on with the whole organization as a whole.”

Beyond increasing publicity and accessibility, USG hopes to grow its endowment to help ensure the student programming fee does not increase in coming years.

“We don’t want the student fee to be a burden, I mean, tuition is enough,” Anderson said. “We’re looking for ways to alleviate students financially and we’re constantly evaluating procedures to make them better.”