Bey wants group to be proactive, accessible

Jonathan Bey, executive director for Undergraduate Student Government, said he wants to make the new student government more available to students.

He said he wants USG to be “more proactive and grassroots” and go out and talk to students.

“We’ll be taking up every opportunity we have to, as I said, just to be out there and not just in here, sitting behind desks or anything like that,” he said, adding that he thinks students may have a misconception of student government and its members.

To counteract that notion, Bey said he devoted one day during training week for members to talk with freshmen during move-in day.

USG also conducted a simulated meeting during Week of Welcome, walked around at BlastOff! and stationed voter registration tables in Risman Plaza.

Although the giveaways at these events may have been cheesy, Bey said USG visibility was the real prize.

“We had our sign out there, and we repeatedly announced on the microphone – probably too much for some people who were sitting out there – but that we were, in fact, the Undergraduate Student Government,” he said.

Bey said members have formed a street team to promote USG and USG-sponsored events. The team has been plastering both the campus and Kent with fliers and posters so people see the USG logo.

HOW TO CONTACT USG &bull USG is in Room 120 of the Student Center between the University Bookstore and the first-floor Kent Market. USG’s office phone number is 330-672-3207. &bull USG meets at 4 p.m. Wednesdays in the Governance Chambers on the second floor of the Student Center. All meetings are open to the public. &bull USG’s new Web site is www.usg.kent.edu.

“We just want to connect with the average student, the people who are just here for their education, which is why we’re all here,” he said. “My goal is to make them this year understand that we are just like them, and we really do want to make what they do here better.”

USG adviser Donna Carlton said she sees the reorganization as a way to reach different student populations that the previous nine members of USG simply couldn’t.

“With the name change and addition of 16 new members, it allows us to access a larger number of students for information sharing, notification of events and listening,” she said. “Senators are able to listen to students’ suggestions and potentially bring forward issues we may not have known about.”

Junior biology major Kaylan Patterson said the new challenge for USG is to make itself known to students.

“I think it’s part of the battle to try and get USG out there in front of intramural groups that you see posters for,” she said. “Once it does get out there, it will be more known and popular amongst students, more than it is now.”

Ellen Campbell, graduate student in higher education and student personnel, said other than Bey’s speech at the University Convocation, USG has been nearly invisible.

“I haven’t heard too much or seen anything about it in a residence hall on campus, and I haven’t seen any information targeting first-year students or any students in general,” said Campbell, who is also an assistant residence hall director for Koonce Hall. “They have a captive audience of students living in the residence halls and an easy place to advertise.”

Contact student politics reporter Nicole Stempak at [email protected].