Gordy Heminger makes a difference in the student and residential people’s lives everyday.

Heminger is the First Ward on City Council which is part of the residential area and campus. On campus, the area is primarily anything between Fraternity Row to Thurstin.

As representative for the ward, he has one of the seven votes on city council. Both students and city residents are a priority for Heminger.

He is also involved in University administrations working with the Alumni Office as Assistant Director.

An alumni himself, Heminger graduated from BGSU in 1999 and majored in political science and minored in history. He was also involved in Alpha Sigma Phi and he is still involved.

To further his education he pursued a master’s degree in college student personnel.

After graduating again in July 2002, he began working for Campus Involvement Student Organizations such as Latino Students’ Organization and Vision.

Then he shifted his attention to the city. In Nov. 2005, he ran for First Ward which has a 2-year-term against another student and won. According to Heminger, he obtained 85 percent of on-campus votes the first time he ran.

“When I ran two years ago the precinct I did the best in was the on-campus precinct,” he said.

This upcoming year he is running once again, unopposed.

Heminger enjoys being connected with the city because he has the experience to do the job.

“The reason I ran was to bridge the gap between students and permanent residents. I felt like I could do that the best,” he said.

From Heminger’s point of view students do not pay enough attention to the city and students should be more involved with Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate Student Senate.

But, Heminger also says, students are good members of the community and there are only a few people that ruin the student reputation for everyone.

Most people are respectful and the community enjoys the students, Heminger said.

After graduating from BGSU, Heminger says he is still in the area because he enjoys being around campus and the surrounding area.

“I like the area and campus. It’s comfortable to me,” he said.

Psychology professor Mike Zickar explains that any campus that has students living with permanent residents will always face problems.

“Every campus that has students living within an existing [community] has issues between students and permanent residents,” he said.

Zickar feels Heminger is a valuable member to have on council because of his history with students and residents.

“I think Gordy [Heminger] has done a great job on council. He has connections between both groups of constituents. He owns a house in the First Ward plus during the day he works with students on a regular basis,” Zickar said.

John Fawcett, city administrator, has seen Heminger work first hand.

He said the relationship between city and campus is a positive one and city government has a lot of experience working with students.

“I think that the relationship is positive. City government has a long history of working with students in various boards and commissions and a history of having students serve on city council,” Fawcett said.

Fawcett also thinks Heminger is doing a good job and making an effective difference on city council.

“Gordy [Heminger] is very effective on city council. He is an excellent representative of the students and the non-student bodies. He is an excellent communicator and he has the interest of the community and his official capacity on city council,” Fawcett said.