Tag: Undergraduate Student Government

SBE’s Reginald Hicks Elected VP of USG

Reginald Hicks is a current Marketing student with a minor in Global Business.  He’s on the Dean’s Student Advisory Council, Heritage Month Committee, National Society of Black Engineers, serves as Treasurer of the American Marketing Association and Treasurer of the Society of African American Men.  But Reggie holds a new office; he was recently elected Vice President of Michigan Tech’s Undergraduate Student Government!

According to their website, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) “serves over 220 student organizations in conjunction with student activities. USG allocates over $800,000 annually to support organizations and enable new opportunities.”  They play a key role in on-campus traditions such as Winter Carnival, and they work to ensure that the undergraduate student body is represented.

Reggie was elated to be elected VP.  He stated, “I cannot even express in words how I feel being elected Vice President of USG!  With great humility, I am honored to lead such a vital organization on Michigan Tech’s campus, in a very profound way.  There are a couple of initiatives I would like to work on during my candidacy.”

His initiatives include:

  • fostering a campus community conducive to showing the undergraduate population how much USG cares,
  • educating students as to how USG can be their voice on campus,
  • and creating a more inclusive, yet still diverse, campus.

Reggie will be a wonderful Vice President for USG, and we wish him all the best for his term!

Undergraduate Student Government Participation = Resume Boost

USG offers SBE students the opportunity to apply their academics and background to boost their resume and align with career goals.

Michigan Tech’s Student Government asks the students of SBE:

“What would Goldman Sachs do?”

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) is currently exploring an idea to engage students interested in the application of business and economics.  The idea is to create a kind of student consultancy that can assist the USG Executive Team in the strategic management and investment of the Student Activity Fee (SAF) accounts, which total more than $800k annually.

Part of the USG’s mission is to support all student organizations. To do that, USG uses the SAF money to fund orgs and initiatives for the benefit of all students.  The overall vision of this role is to provide financial resources so that the student orgs can help Tech to graduate students ready to “create the future”.

USG’s Challenge: The goal of graduating students ready to “create the future” is difficult to optimize because it is not inherently empirical.  There are few metrics in use to tell USG which potential investments are most valuable, or to measure the success of investments.  Therefore, USG hopes students can answer the following questions:

  • What critical results does USG need to deliver when investing the SAF funds?
  • What processes/metrics can we use to prioritize investment to deliver those results?
  • What metrics can we use to monitor the success of an org and/or new initiative?

By providing this open ended challenge, USG hopes students can apply their training to create resume experiences in line with their professional goals.  In doing so, these students can build a network of motivated partners inside and outside the university, and leave a lasting impact on the entire Michigan Tech community.

Please contact Kyle Johnston with questions or interest.

Economics Major Elected USG President

Eli A. Karttunen, USG president, a senior in economics.

New members have been elected to the Executive Board of Undergraduate Student Government (USG)  for one-year appointments.  The School of Business and Economics is proud to announce that one of our own, Economics major Eli Karttuenen, has been elected to serve as president.

2012 USG members and Titles:

* Eli A. Karttunen, president, a senior in economics

* Donnie L. Palmer, vice president, a junior in chemical engineering

* Jennifer M. Zarzecki, secretary, a senior in mechanical engineering

* Abhishek Gupta, treasurer, a senior in civil engineering

As a member of the USG for the past 2 years, Eli has seen many ways in which USG could improve student life on campus by making student’s opinions heard, which is a big reason why he chose to run for president. USG is supposed to be the collective voice of students on campus.  Eli hopes improve the current relationship between students, USG, and the administration during his time as president.

When we asked Eli about his goals as president, he responded “My first priority is to improve the relationship between USG and the students. An organization only has as much influence as its constituents afford, and this is one area USG has been lacking. I know how this organization works and what students need.”

We wish Eli and the rest of the Undergraduate Student Government the best of luck in attaining and surpassing their goals during their appointments!