Undergraduate Student Government (USG) will focus on changing its policies and will target the organization’s goal of increasing student participation at on-campus events, according to senators at their first meeting of the year last Tuesday.
According to senior foreign language and cross-culture communications major Sam Estenson, USG president, and junior public policy and political science major Parker Calbert, vice president, USG is focused on increasing collaboration between different student facets on campus through joint event programing throughout this year.
This year, USG will be using a variety of new strategies to increase student involvement in activities.They will be hosting “bundled programming” throughout the year, which groups together different activities and organizations from all over campus into one event.
USG has also released the Pioneer Calendar to provide a centralized source of information on events around campus, which is provided on the “student life” tab of DU’s website. The calendar lists all the events of different organizations occurring throughout campus in one place, making it easier for students to access information about many different organizations’ activities and events.
“We are trying to bring everyone together and utilize every aspect of the DU community,” said Estenson.
According to senator Zach Gonzalez, a senior business economics major, USG is focusing on working collaboratively to encourage student involvement on campus.
“We want to engage students in the DU community this year because we have a lot of exciting ideas,” he said.
Friday’s “Kickoff” event on campus was the first of the multifarious “bundled” programs USG plans to incorporate this year. The event gave students the opportunity to attend a free spaghetti dinner, watch a DU Men’s soccer game, eat gelato in the Driscoll Green and attend DUPB’s trivia night in Sidelines Pub.
According to Calbert, over 100 students attended the afternoon activities and half of the freshman class turned out for the men’s soccer game and gelato afterward.
Estenson said he hopes such programs will foster collaboration and teamwork both within USG and throughout different student clubs and organizations on campus to help increase communication and build bridges.
“We want to unite students and increase diversity and participation in student organizations,” said Estenson.
“I think Sam and Parker will make a great team because they have similar interests and a similar vision for student government,” said Gonzalez.
