On Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) held a pivotal meeting. After weeks of deliberation, members voted to approve updates to the constitution. This meeting also addressed committee updates, budget reports, approvals, and a proposal to introduce an updated MTU Banweb browser for student registration.
The committee passed votes concerning constitutional expansion and voting privileges, along with revisions to equal opportunity statements. They also pushed a motion to revise the USG composition, addressing USG committee growth as the university grows. A revision to add a Graduate Student Government member and several other revisions were pushed to future weeks for future discussion. The voting on constitutional revisions will continue in further weeks as the committee aims to proceed carefully to ensure they get everything right. “If we want to present this to the student body, we want it to be exactly as USG wants,” said At-Large Student Representative Konraad Van Dyke.
In addition to constitutional revisions, the Ways and Means committee presented several funding recommendations to allocate money from the budgeted opportunity fund to student organizations. This week, these funds were used to support student organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers, the Husky Swim Club, and Huskies Curling.
USG also discussed the state of the Student Activity Fee budget, pointing to the decline in projected revenue because of lower enrolment numbers compared to previous years. Members emphasized the importance of proper financial planning to ensure that they can continue campus services.
This meeting also featured a guest speaker, Shellie Hubert, from MTU’s IT department, who introduced a newly integrated browser aimed to simplify class registration in Banweb. Features such as “Plan Ahead” will allow students to create and organize future class schedules directly within the interface. Hubert mentioned that they are still in the testing stages, stating, “You probably won’t see this new interface next fall semester, but probably soon after that.” This update is expected to improve students registering experience by addressing issues with the current system.
USG encourages students to voice their opinions and invites the public to attend their meetings. They are held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge of the MUB; for more information, visit usg.mtu.edu/.
