Last spring, students elected the President and Vice President of the Undergraduate Student Government for the year on their campaign promises.

Emily Ancinec and Rob Orians were elected on the basis that they would strengthen the student voice, reinvest in the campus atmosphere, reevaluate policies on weather and campus service, make a shuttle application, have more face to face time with students and use campus notes and social media more.

“I feel like we’ve had a really strong start to the year,” Ancinec said.

USG has been fulfilling its leaders’ promises by working to strengthen the student voice through having its members on different University committees where they can interact with faculty and administration, Ancinec said.

Ancinec and Orians have also encouraged students and administrators to reinvest in the campus atmosphere.

“It’s about getting energy and momentum back to Bowling Green,” Ancinec said. “Last spring when we campaigned we felt like BG had a lot to offer, but no one was excited about it.”

President Mary Ellen Mazey has helped with getting people more excited about the University, Ancinec said.

“We want to celebrate what makes us BG,” Ancinec said.

Ancinec and Orians also plan to re-evaluate what they think are unclear weather and campus service policies.

“We felt that they were not defined that well,” Ancinec said. “If there is a storm coming through and there’s still class, we want to know why we still have class.”

Senior Sarah Modene agrees that policies needed clarifying.

“I think that’s a step in the right direction, it’s something I was really worried about last semester because I didn’t live in BG,” Modene said. “I think the main thing is that students have more of a voice in matters.”

USG is beginning to work on making it clear, so students know how snow days and weather policies are decided, Ancinec said.

A mobile shuttle app is also something Ancinec and Orians included in their campaign platform. The app is currently in the works and when completed, it should be free to students, Ancinec said.

Face-to-face time with students is also important to USG members, but Ancinec said she isn’t personally able to talk as much with students.

“I’m in meetings; I spend a lot of time with administrators,” Ancinec said. “The senate as a whole – because of how far-reaching we are – is trying to be more visible.”

However, Ancinec is a tour guide on campus, which allows her to talk to prospective students, said Derek Sword, USG internal affairs chair.

One other way the organization is trying to increase their visibility is by using social media more. USG has increased their use of Facebook and Twitter, Ancinec said.

“When the gender expression resolution passed, I came right back to the office and put it on Facebook,” Ancinec said. “We’ve promoted everyone in the senate to tell their friends to follow us,” she said.

Modene doesn’t know what USG is and suggested campus updates as a way to get the word out.

“I’m not familiar with the organization [USG] at all,” Modene said. “But think it’s important to know more. They can always send announcements out through daily updates via email, I know people look at those.”

The organization does put information on campus updates, but Sword isn’t sure students read them.

“We have a long list of goals and ways to achieve them for students,” Sword said.

At the beginning of the semester, Ancinec said she wasn’t sure of the what the key issue would be.

“The biggest one is the one we don’t know about, that hasn’t come up yet, that’s kind of our rule of thumb … ” Ancinec said in an interview in August.

So far this semester, Ancinec said the big issue was the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority bus service that was proposed to come to the University. There were several meetings about it, but in the end, Ancinec said USG didn’t have enough information about the bus service to endorse the TARTA student group and haven’t heard any updates.

Sword said he thinks Ancinec and Orians will fulfill their campaign goals by May.

“By the end of next semester I think they will have accomplished everything they set out to do,” Sword said.

USG is hosting a retreat in January, and Ancinec said they will reassess and plan what to do next semester.

“We will look at what we’ve done so far, what we want to finish and what we want to do,” Ancinec said. “We would like the things we’re working on to come full swing.”