Since she was in elementary school Monique Maxwell has always felt compelled to get involved. She was captain of the cheer team and involved in student government in high school. As soon as she arrived at Buffalo State, Maxwell wanted to continue being an active member of her community.

With an active attitude, outgoing personality and a willingness to help others, becoming United Students Government President seemed like a natural next step for Maxwell.

Maxwell will take on an important and powerful positon on campus. USG is in charge of the money that comes from the $150 mandatory student fee (which was passed for two more years last week) which generates about $1.5 million per year. USG is in charge of most student run organizations and provide a majority of their funding.

The communications major believes she is the right person for the job.

“I’m a life-long USG member,” Maxwell said. “I have great connections with people and will figure out what is best for students on campus.”

When the Queens native came to Buffalo State, she was immediately introduced to USG by an alum from her high school and fell right at home. She joined as a senator in her first semester.

Even though she didn’t quite understand everything that was going on at the time, the communications major and leadership and creative studies minor knew she wanted to be part of an impactful organization.

“I loved it,” Maxwell said. “We were talking about things that impacted students. From there it took off.”

She then joined the executive board and became the Vice President of Student Life in her sophomore year — a position where she collaborated with many student organizations on campus.

That same year she became an R.A. in Porter Hall, which has the highest number of freshman of any student housing building on campus.

It allowed her the opportunity to help many young students and encourage them to be active on campus.

“I was around students who were just in my shoes not too long ago,” Maxwell recalled. “I was able to push them to get involved and attend events.”

Maxwell was also active in P.U.L.S.E. (Powerful United Ladies Striving to Elevate), serving as its public relations chair. It was through that position that she learned to promote events — a skill she plans on using as USG president.

“I have a strong background with planning events,” Maxwell said. “The events are what brings people out and helps them to get to know about USG.”

Through all of these experiences Maxwell has come to know many students on campus. Those relationships have allowed her to find out what issues the student body cares about most.

The students and the issues they care about are the main reason why she wanted to be USG president.

“I know a lot of people and I know many of the issues they have with certain things on campus,” Maxwell said. “I want to try help these situations.”

But she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it alone.

Maxwell and her two friends Nikita Singh and Savannah Morgan teamed up to form “The Triple Threat”, an alliance that ran together in the student government elections. Singh won Executive Vice President and Morgan won Treasurer.

It’s a team that was created for more than just the election, but to work together to tackle the campus’ issues.

One of biggest issues facing Maxwell and “The Triple Threat” is the lack of student involvement on campus.

It’s an issue that was apparent in the elections last week.

The overall ballot count was 938. That’s about 10% of Buffalo State’s undergraduate population.

The ballot itself didn’t show great student involvement either. Maxwell, along with seven others ran unopposed in the election. Only 16 of 40 positions were filled in the USG senate and only four of 10 positions were filled in the College Senate.

It’s an issue that Maxwell plans to work to improve.

“I was extremely disappointed with how many positions were already filled,” Maxwell said. “I think it starts with bringing the presence back. We need to come together and promote USG. USG has a big say; we make a lot of decisions that effect every Buffalo State student.”

In her tenure, Maxwell wants to make sure that USG is serving the needs of the students it serves — that means collaborating with student organizations to solve issues that need to be brought to light and discussed.

“I want the legislator to have a big impact on the community,” Maxwell said. “The only way we can do that is getting out there.”

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