When Undergraduate Student Government [USG] senators-at-large Trenten Grohe and Kaylee Meade look at the University’s student government senate, they see wasted potential.

“We see a very inactive senate right now,” Grohe said. “What are we seeing to actually benefit the BGSU community as whole?”

Not a lot, Grohe said.

Grohe and Meade recently announced their candidacy for President and Vice President, respectively, of USG.

This school year, USG has passed two resolutions and a few amendments to student government by-laws. Grohe and Meade said they believe this to be a small amount of activity given the government’s role of representing University students.

“Kaylee and I both looked at each other and said, ‘how can we go back to the drawing board to make USG more accessible to not only students, but to administrative staff also,’” Grohe said.

Grohe cited a recent example when Senator Edward Vaughn voiced concerns about the lack of a multicultural lounge, or an inherently inclusive space for minority groups to study.

“That’s fine when Vaughn comes and proposes that to USG and talks about the concerns, but where’s the follow up action on that?,” Grohe said. “Where are we breaking out to our committee and saying, ‘let’s explore this.’”

The Grohe/Meade platform is built on what they call “Straight A’s for BGSU,” or a list of concepts both want to focus on that all start with the letter A.

These concepts are Academics, Acceptance, Atmosphere, Accountability and Accessibility.

Much of this platform deals not only with increasing USG effectiveness, but also fostering diversity and spreading awareness of student academic services. The full rundown of the Straight As for BGSU is available online at bgnews.com.

“We’ve already started going to different organizations,” Meade said. “We’ve more so done it just to make sure everybody knows that elections are coming up, but continuing to do that and making sure everybody knows what USG is.”

Grohe and Meade’s campaign announcement comes at a time when USG is attempting to increase awareness. Late last month, an initiative to raise student consciousness of USG was announced by the student government.

“We [want] to make constituents very aware of who their senator is,” Meade said.

Both Grohe and Meade have a history of non-student governmental leadership at the University. Grohe is currently the president of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and is a Residential Advisor at Kreischer Ashley/Batchelder. Meade is Vice President of Philanthropy in the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority and a campus

tour guide.

“We may not hold leadership roles in the senate, outside the senate we definitely have the experience to manage [USG],”

Grohe said.