My name is Laiba Hussain and I am going to be the next Baruch College Undergraduate Student Government President from 2022 to 2023.

My team and I are extremely excited for this new term, especially as we enter an almost fully in-person school year after two years of online and hybrid learning.

When I started at Baruch back in 2019, the school had a culture like no other I had ever seen.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I could be found hopping from club to club, immersing myself in Baruch’s social scene as I met new people from various backgrounds and interests.

Instead of rushing back home every single day, I slowly found myself staying at school for hours after my classes had ended in exchange for a few laughs and strengthened bonds that would last me through a global pandemic.

The idea of returning to normalcy has been a notion that many of us have fantasized about since March 2020, and one that we’re closer than ever to finally realizing.

During my term as president, I hope to bring back a culture that’s different from what many of us experienced when coming to campus as a first-year student. I want it to be even better than any of us could have ever imagined.

The first step in how our team plans to return student life back to campus is by getting in touch with Baruch’s clubs and organizations and getting a sense of their needs and anxieties.

After a long period with no in-person events, we hope to work together with Baruch students in learning how to do paperwork for vendors, assist in throwing events through co-sponsorships and host club-based collaboration events such as Lip Sync Battle and Club Fair.

I hope to jump-start a new era of creativity on campus by using the USG as a stepping stone to help reinstate the responsibilities of event planning back to the student body.

USG will also continue to market club life in its newest edition of the Baruch Survival Guide as a way for the new class to become familiar with the various organizations that Baruch has to offer.

By the end of my term, I hope to leave Baruch with hallways that are just as bustling and active as when I first entered.

Whether it be through food giveaways, random dance breakouts or just people mingling and hanging out, I want this to be the year that Baruch can reclaim its sense of community as we strive for a fulfilling, social college experience.