CUSG’s five new representatives are busy preparing for budget season and looking forward to spring elections.
Representative Gabriel Schreiber, a 25-year-old graduate student and accounting major, said he is enjoying her experience as a representative-at-large for the second time.
“I do like what I do with CUSG,” Schreiber said. “I am currently preparing for budget season and reforming our election code.”
Schreiber said students can look forward to Representative Council funding numerous groups and events on campus as well as student fee limits.
“For the future, we are trying to keep the student fee flat without reducing the services provided to students,” Schreiber said.
Representative Danielle Watkins-Green, a 20-year-old junior majoring in political science and economics, said prior to this term, she was a part of Arts and Sciences Student Government during her sophomore year.
“I had the wonderful experience of working with students from all walks of life,” Green said. “Right now I am working with AIR Board and [Student Groups Funding Board] to meet their needs.”
Green said her plans and CUSG’s plans for the future are to work with more student groups and cost centers like the Rec Center, the UMC and Wardenburg.
“The funding will be going to student groups, cost centers and other programs,” Green said. “If students want to talk to me or other student leaders they should stop by the office in the UMC.”
Representative Brooks Kanski, a 20-year-old junior majoring in economics and neuroscience, said everything has been going well with legislation since the elections.
“We’re making some progress on some legislation that we’re starting to wrap up for proposal to Legislative Council and Rep. Council,” Kanski said. “We’ve had a great time on Rep. Council so far.”
Kanski said he and the other representatives are hoping to improve spending on Representative Council.
“First semester we spent close to 17 grand on Rep Council,” Kanski said. “We’re looking to do a little more than that this semester with student funding.”
After being recently ratified to Finance Board, Kanski said he will be working on the university’s budget decisions this year.
“I just got ratified to the Finance Board again so I’ve kind of been thrown back into the budget cycle coming up in February,” Kanski said. “We’re going to be revamping the budget.”
Improvements at Wardenburg are included in CUSG’s budget plans.
“Wardenburg has limited space and capital to work with, so one of our big projects has been trying to maximize their efficiencies and services,” Kanski said.
Another main focus of Rep. Council’s efforts, Kanski said, is the Rec Center renovation development.
“Right now a huge project of ours is working with the Rec Board and getting the process in line with where to make the decision to push forward with the renovation or just call it off,” Kanski said.
Representative Tyler Goering, a 21-year-old junior and psychology major, said he is excited to work on the renovation and growth of the Rec Center.
“I really want to do what I can to help the expansion of the Rec Center,” Goering said. “It’s something that will have a lasting impact on our campus and it’s something that all students can be excited about.”
Goering said he is enjoying his participation with CUSG thus far and has learned a lot of valuable skills that he couldn’t get in a classroom.
“As far as handling the responsibility of being on CUSG, I would say the most important thing to me is time management,” Goering said.
Similar to Goering’s opinion, Representative Amy Johnson, a 21-year-old senior and marketing major, said the past few months since becoming a CUSG representative have been a part of a transitional learning experience for her.
“Outside of allocations to individual student organizations and events,” Johnson said. “I have continued to build relationships with faculty and student groups.”
Johnson said she and CUSG will continue to allocate funds to appropriate student groups that will better the CU community as a whole.
“With time, I hope to become more involved in the bill-writing process and gain an understanding for what more student government entails,” Johnson said.
Kanski said it has been fun seeing the impact and the extent of their outreach to student groups on campus and he is looking forward to the spring elections.
“We’re really looking forward to March elections and hopefully bringing in more strong demographics and beliefs,” Kanski said. “Everyone is just really fitting into the groove. We’ve got a great team that’s looking forward to some of the new representatives coming out in the spring.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Carli Auran at Carli.auran@colorado.edu.
