I want to take a few moments to go over some of the accomplishments made by the Undergraduate Student Government this semester and our upcoming initiatives for the spring semester.

USG had a record number of giveaways and events led by Vice President of Student Services Aaron D’Souza and his vice chairs. D’Souza hosted an event almost every week, whether it was a pop-up or a food giveaway. He led “Welcome Week Fall 2018,” “Waffle Wednesday,” “Get Baked With USG,” “Got Buns?” “Hall-o-week” and “Lip Sync,” along with random pop-ups sprinkled throughout the semester. USG’s Chair of Philanthropy Liz Barzman and her vice chair, Robert A. Da Rita, led four drives — a textbook drive, coin drive, canned food drive and toy drive. USG and the International Student Organization led the first Winter Graduation Reception.

The student government newsletter had a record number of subscribers, and two committees had over 100 members. USG also created a new ad-hoc committee called Public Opinion, led by Kayla Rivera. The committee’s goal is to survey and learn more about the Baruch undergraduate population. I am pretty excited to be working with different departments on campus to host events that USG hasn’t done in the past. USG is working with the alumni department for an alumni panel for different majors.

This event is mostly targeting first-year students and sophomores so they can learn about majors at Baruch and opportunities for full-time positions.

USG is working with the Starr Career Development Center to create an improv workshop. This workshop will teach students how to network, work on their elevator pitches and practice mock interviews. I am going to be leading a few radio segments with President Mitchel B. Wallerstein alongside WBMB Radio, similar to what had been done in the past.

USG will be working on a postcard campaign in February to acquire more funding for phase 2 of the 23rd Street building construction. Baruch students will get to enjoy the annual “Bernies,” “Baruch Bash,” “Bearcats on Ice” and “Albany Caucus.” Lastly, I will be working on a handbook for future Baruch USGs and a guidebook for “How to be a CUNY President” alongside the CUNY University Student Senate. Those are some of the action items on my agenda for USG and USS.

USG is trying to step out of its comfort zone and hold different kinds of events. We are excited for all of you to see what we have in store. Good luck on finals
everyone.

Radhika Kalani is the president of USG. She can be reached at radhika.kalani@usgbaruch.com. Her office is located at 3-272 in the Newman Vertical Campus.