What a year it has been! On this last day of our term as president and vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government, we wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for trusting us with such an incredible opportunity. During our campaign a year ago, we heard students say they did not know what USG did for them, and they did not understand how USG could effectively represent the entire student body. Upon our election, we decided that the only way to correct this would be to get out there and listen to as many students as possible. We came to learn that every Ohio State student has a different background and different priorities. It was only upon becoming effective listeners that we were able to effectively lead.

We spent the year working tirelessly to implement the ideas we heard from you. Thanks to your ideas and USG’s efforts, Thompson Library is now open until 2 a.m. These additional hours ensure we are better able to utilize all the resources available to us to help us with our studies. Additionally, in response to concerns that we heard about student safety, we were able to purchase two new vehicles for the Student Safety Services Program. These new cars will help the program provide more students with rides at times when walking may be unsafe.

You will also be able to see the results of USG’s hard work when you return to campus next year. Prior to the start of football season, a recycling machine will be installed in the South Campus Gateway that will pay us to recycle our cans. This affirms our commitment to environmental sustainability while also helping us to save some money during these challenging economic times. Perhaps most significantly, in response to the desire that we heard for tuition to remain affordable we successfully lobbied the university administration not to impose a costly tuition credit cap. They had proposed that students should pay additional tuition costs if they enrolled in more than 16 credit hours, and we were able to persuade them not to implement this system for next year. This will save students thousands of dollars.

In addition to serving all OSU students as an entirety, we also sought to serve the strong individual communities that make up our student body. We created a USG Diversity team that worked to enhance diversity and inclusion on our campus. We also took a strong stand opposing discrimination in our student organizations to our university administration. We helped the ROTC students receive priority scheduling so that they could better prepare to serve our country while still having the same opportunities to succeed in the classroom that other students enjoy. We also advocated for the needs of in-state, out-of-state and international students at the federal, state and local levels of government.

Throughout the year, we have seen the unbelievable accomplishments that OSU students are capable of achieving. We go to a university of endless opportunities, and USG worked to create new opportunities for all our students to flourish. None of this would have been possible without the help of so many people. USG has hundreds of students involved in our Cabinet and Senate that work every day to make the university a better place. We also want to thank our Cabinet Directors and our leadership team of Laura Christobek, Lindsay Stallings, and Brett Chessin. They are some of the smartest and hardest working students at OSU and they are responsible for so many of USG’s accomplishments this year.

Thank you again for the many ideas that you provided to us, and thank you again for trusting us with this opportunity. We hope we made you proud. We believe in OSU and in the greatness that our students can achieve.

We are all Buckeyes,

Micah Kamrass and Brad Pyle