Election season for Michigan Tech’s Undergraduate Student Government (USG) is well underway. Nominations for E-Board and At-Large positions have passed, and elections are currently open and set to close on Feb. 28. Nominations for general representative positions will be open from Feb. 28 through March 14, with elections to follow from March 21 through March 28.
According to their website, USG acts as a voice for the student body, serving “as an effective, efficient, responsible, and responsive body to the Student Assembly.” They are also in charge of dispersing Student Activity Fee funding to Michigan Tech’s many student organizations.
Davi Sprague, USG’s Fourth-Year Representative, says, “With USG, students have the ability to bargain collectively and get answers to questions that individuals would never secure on their own.” As to why they joined USG, Sprague adds that they were “motivated by frustration with the student condition. Whether it be wages, dining services, accommodations, or housing, it was clear that students weren’t being listened to.”
General representative positions consist of Year Representatives and College Representatives. According to USG’s website, Year Representatives represent students who fall in the same class year as them. College Representatives represent students whose disciplines fall within their own college, such as the College of Engineering or College of Arts and Sciences.
Isobel Bowker, the College of Engineering representative, joined USG because of some aspects of the university that she wasn’t happy with. “I knew that USG helps advocate for students, their rights, and their concerns, and they were actively recruiting new members, so I decided to go through the appointment process to help make a positive impact for the student body.”
By running for a position with USG, students will have the opportunity to advocate for student-centered interests at a higher level. USG representatives are required to attend weekly meetings, hold office hours, and join one of USG’s standing committees. USG’s standing committees serve to address “various issues and projects currently ongoing within the Student Assembly,” according to USG’s website. USG’s current committees are Events, Political Affairs, Public Affairs, Student Affairs, and Ways and Means.
Tim Peters, a First-Year Representative with USG, says that he joined USG for a few different reasons, one being “that I wanted to be an active part in resolving the issues that my peers may have, ensuring that the matters at hand are actually rectified, and the fact that I have held a number of elected positions over my academic career, and USG felt like a natural progression for me.”
Elections will be held via Involvement Link, and links to the forms for nominations can be found on USG’s website, along with a reminder of the dates for each. Students with any questions should contact Cheyenne Scott, USG Secretary, at usg-secretary@mtu.edu.