USG to provide better experience for students

Sarah Minkewicz, News Editor

A new academic school year for SUNY Buffalo States means a change in leadership within the college’s United Student Government and Emily Leminger, vice president of USG, said she plans to change legislation and provide a better college experience for students.

Leminger won the USG election for vice president with a total of 894 votes and added to a fourth year for her with USG.

“I’m pretty much a veteran here but I’m excited,” Leminger said. “It’s exciting every year to see new students and new ideas.”

Leminger served as vice president for the 2014-2015 academic year and said she that although students don’t think the vice president does a lot she plans on making several changes for the upcoming year.

“I think it’s important that we think about not just our individual job but what all of our jobs mean,” she said. “ I do a lot with the staff. I supervise a couple of the executive board members, but a lot of the stuff I do is internal. I keep a lot of track of our events and what we’re working”

She also said she’s looking forward to working with the new executive board and that although she said they’ve made mistake in the past they are going to try their best “to recuperate from them.”

“We’re not perfect and we know that and I think if we ever started to believe we were perfect we would never get anywhere,” Leminger said. “So to do differently I’d really love to do more legislation next year and to improve our campus.”

Although Derek Jordon, newly elected president of USG, wasn’t available for comment Leminger said he has already come up with new initiatives and ideas. Also USG plans to focus more on what our students want.

When asked about student lighting and campus safety Leminger said that USG signed a petition two years ago that asked for more lighting by the classroom building and some of the parking lots.

“I understand that when I pay to park I have to walk ten minutes in the dark so I can understand why that would be chilling to some students and we really want to sign on to whatever projects people may have to improve our campus safety,” she said.

Leminger also said she knows students want improvements within campus dining and that they have plans to continue working with Chartwells, a foodservice contractor, to provide students with a better dinning experience.

“Chartwells works with us a lot and we have a food service committee and it’s open to all our students,” Leminger said.

She added that Chartwells is coming up with new programs and that there’s more late night dinning on campus.

Leminger said that USG has improved its programming in the past year thanks to the help of Alexis Childs, AVP for Student Life.

“She does a great job and does all of our programming,” Leminger said. “She really has improved it but now it’s time for us to improve campus legislation. And it’s time for us to continue, not only our events, but also getting better and better with what we’re doing as a student government.”

Staff reporter, Sara Ali, contributed to this article.

 

[email protected]