Undergraduate Student Government is striving for transparency this year despite their difficulty in nailing down a consistent meeting room for students to access the organization’s meetings.

The meetings began in the McFall Gallery and then moved to various places in the Union.

“We wanted to use the McFall Gallery for our meetings this year,” said Ben Goldsberry, USG speaker. “But it wasn’t exactly the feel we’ve been used to, it isn’t as student friendly as 308 [Union].”

The meetings have since taken place in room 308 in the Union, in the Greenery and in the Union multipurpose room. These locations were used due to scheduling issues that were out of USG’s control, said USG president, Emily Ancinec.

Goldsberry said the meetings will be in room 308 in the Union from now on and USG encourages student attendance at meetings.

“Once we settle down in 308 it’ll help a lot,” Ancinec said. “I think it will improve transparency.”

USG is working on using different media sources such as Facebook and Twitter to promote the meetings and let students know the location USG will meet.

“Every meeting is open to students, transparency is something that’s really essential,” Goldsberry said. “I think we’ve been forthright with everything we’re doing.”

Michael Ginsburg, associate dean of students and USG adviser, said student attendance at meetings is “pretty minimal.”

“We would love to have people,” Ginsburg said. “[USG] is really striving to gain student input.”

One way the organization was attempting to encourage student input was by experimenting with different meeting places.

USG recently had a meeting in the Greenery, which was an attempt to involve students more, Ginsburg said.

“One reason why we were in the greenery was to try to be highly visible,” Ginsburg said. “We were hoping that students would stop by and participate in the meeting, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Students can not only attend meetings and observe, but they can also participate in what is called lobby time.

“During lobby time any student at the University can come and speak,” Goldsberry said.

Besides the meetings, another way the organization works to gain participation from their constituents, students, is to have what they call external office hours for their senators.

“Senators are required to do external office hours,” Ancinec said. “Those are where they actually go outside of the office and meet with constituents … they could meet with people in their college, on their floor, they could really talk to anyone.”

USG is also trying to strengthen their connection with other student organizations such as the Resident Student Association and Graduate Student Senate.

“Rob [Orians] and I have really been trying to reach out to different hall councils and different organizations,” Ancinec said. “There are so many misconceptions about USG with the student body.”

Ancinec said she wants students to see USG and attend the meetings so they can stay informed about big issues.

“We don’t want to put students in a reactive state, we want to put them in a proactive state,” Ancinec said.