Legal clinic a high point
As Undergraduate Student GovernmentPresident Peter Koltak prepares to close his one-year term, and as Speaker of the Senate Ben Anthony prepares to take the helm of USG, both agree that one of their biggest contributions is the spark they gave to the future student legal clinic.
“It’s going to be an optional program students can join; they can pay a small fee and have access to lawyers on a range of legal issues,” Koltak said.
The Student Housing Legal Clinic, run by the Moritz College of Law, offers students free legal advice about housing, but Anthony says that isn’t enough.
“It’s so much bigger than housing,” Anthony said.
Students can face a variety of legal problems, he said, and few have the funds to go to professional counseling.
The proposed clinic will go to a final vote at the Board of Trustees meeting in June.
Efforts not ‘green’ enough
As new university officials have come and gone over the last year, USG has made it a priority to get to know new officials.
“We’ve done a lot of relationship-building with our new administration,” Koltak said.
But his administration didn’t live up to its “green” expectations.
“We could have done more on greening the campus,” Koltak said.
He pointed out that USG did initiate a recycling program at Greek houses and produced “green” educational materials, but said they ran out of time before they could accomplish bigger projects.
“There are only so many hours in a day, and I wish we had been able to spend more time on some green issues,” Koltak said.
Communication gap
One of the biggest challenges to the USG Senate is hardly a new one; Anthony said the organization is still struggling to develop a relationship with its constituency.
“Some colleges and constituencies are very close to their senator,” Anthony said. “The [agriculture] school has always had a very close relationship with their senator, and are very well informed and like the work that we do.”
But other colleges have had more difficulty with outreach, especially larger ones.
“We always need to improve so that people know who they are, what we’re doing and what can be worked on,” Anthony said.
Growing pains
Koltak said he has learned from his controversial USG campaign last year, in which he was disqualified and then reinstated.
“It really taught me about perseverance, but it didn’t affect our ability to do business,” he said. Koltak added that as president, he’s developed a better understanding of the big picture.
“I hope I’ve developed the skills to take a situation where we’re talking about a policy proposal or an idea for an event, and look at it in the context of the bigger picture,” he said.
The current USG administration will turn over the reins to the next administration on May 6.
Andrew Martin can be reached at [email protected].
