USG board shares plans for upcoming year

The newly elected United Students Government executive board has taken office, with big plans for the year.

President Sara Garfinkle, Vice President James Huggins and Treasurer Joshua Lipka were elected during the USG elections last semester. All three are USG veterans, with Lipka serving his second term as treasurer.

Perhaps the biggest change the board plans on making is how the student organizations communicate with the executive board. The current system relies on liaisons and is ineffective, Huggins said.

"It's not right and doesn't work for the executive board or the student organizations' benefit," he said.

The board hopes to improve on communication and attempt to speak more to students about their concerns, Garfinkle said.

"We're in the process of changing the liaisonsystem and really opening up the communication between the organizations and USG," she said. "We will be talking more about issues that concern students at Buffalo State College and less about the events that we will be running."

Expanding the brand of USG is also an important part of the board's plan going forward, Lipka said. Not all students know what USG is or what it does for students. Lipka would like students to know about USG from the start of their college experience.

"It's just making sure from day one that freshmen coming in for orientation understand that USG is the place to go for the next four years for activities on campus, and how to get involved," he said.

The board faces some challenges in the upcoming year. The third floor of the student union is tentatively scheduled for renovation at the beginning of the spring semester, vastly reducing program space for USG and member organizations. The board is confident it can deal with the space issue to keep everything running smoothly, Garfinkle said.

"We do see that there will be some challenges in the springsemester because of the renovations going on, but we will be fine and be able to adapt," she said.

In fact, Huggins said, they're already dealing with the issue.

"We are already making the proper steps to see that we have all the space we need for programs," he said.

Despite all of the plans, the most important thing the board and USG do is fight for students, Lipka said. Though he doesn't know what issues might arise, he said whatever those issues are, USG will rally on the students' behalf.

Michael Canfield can be reached by email at canfield.record@live.com.