All of us in the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) hope that your summertime was relaxing and productive. As you may know, the USG is an integral part of campus life, and you will see this continue in the 2010-2011 academic year. We have achieved great gains this past year through interacting with our peers, effectively organizing and making available our budgetary processes, and by improving training and communications for our officials.

The USG will continue to keep the student body updated on initiatives through a variety of media including our monthly newsletter, The Advocate, this column, and our new webpage, UMBGOV.com. We will also offer regular updates on Facebook and Twitter. As always, we are available to answer student inquiries in the USG offices on the second floor of the Campus Center in rooms 2404 and 2405.

We are pleased to continue our polling efforts with monthly Campus Connect tables. We will continue to act on the results from those polls, as we did with the library survey last year, when we used out funds to extend library hours after they were reduced due to budget cuts.

Thank you for taking time to be involved! Your feedback was critical then, and it continues to be.

We will continue to work closely with students, administration, faculty and staff to achieve improvements to policy and campus life. Your involvement with the USG is what makes many interactions for the whole campus community more efficient, more enjoyable, and more meaningful.

If you wish to participate actively with the USG in any role, large or small, we encourage you to sign up and volunteer. Do this by visiting us online at www.umbgov.com/volunteer. You can also stop by the USG office or call us at 617-287-7970 and leave your name, contact information, and interests.

Have a great fall semester!