Undergraduate Student Government is accepting applications for several General Assembly senator seats as well as for the Black Caucus and general membership. Applications for the Black Caucus and General Assembly are due Friday at 11:59 p.m., and applications for general membership are due Jan. 31 at 11:59 p.m. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
Ohio State’s Undergraduate Student Government is now accepting applications for vacant General Assembly seats, new general members and Black Caucus membership.
USG’s General Assembly has seats open for the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education and Human Ecology, College of Engineering, College of Pharmacy, off-campus living area and regional campus living area senators. The General Assembly and Black Caucus applications are due Friday at 11:59 p.m., according to their applications, and new general membership applications are open until Jan. 31 at 11:59 p.m.
Roaya Higazi, a fourth-year in city and regional planning and USG president, said vacancies throughout the semester are common, and USG tries to fill the seats as soon as possible to ensure there is a full general assembly present to vote on resolutions.
“Sometimes, students will step down from their senatorial position because they are busy with schoolwork or they just have other things going on, and they can’t fully commit to the position,” Higazi said.
According to USG’s constitution, applicants can expect to create campus policy through the university’s shared governance system, help create and evaluate and amend the Organizational Bylaws of USG.
“One of the primary functions of the Legislature is to create the official opinion of USG,” the application states. “This is very important as it puts significant weight behind what USG is advocating for.”
According to the application, applicants must be undergraduate students in the college for which General Assembly seat they are applying. A student who wants to be an off-campus-living-area senator must live off campus, and a regional campus senator must either be a current regional campus student or was a regional campus student for at least one semester of the 2019-20 academic year.
Applicants are expected to answer questions on problems they believe their constituency faces and how they would address those issues as part of the selection process, the application states.
Any undergraduate student can apply to be a general member of USG, according to the application. Along with submitting an application, students are required to attend one general information session, either live or on Zoom, Wednesday at 6 p.m. or Thursday at 7 p.m., and watch at least four videos provided about the committees and branches of USG. Students can watch recorded sessions in lieu of attending the live events.
Students who are also interested in advocating and supporting Black students on campus can apply for Black Caucus, according to the flier.
“The caucus was built on the foundation of social justice advocacy,” the flier states. “It aims to establish and maintain a cohesive union between Black students, Black organizations and the Black community as a whole to facilitate growth opportunities at The Ohio State University.”
The Black Caucus was approved by USG in March 2020 after the student government did not recognize Black History Month at a meeting in February 2020.
According to the application, applicants will answer questions of what they can contribute to Black Caucus and the importance of Black leadership to them.
Students are able to apply for USG’s general membership here, USG’s general assembly here and for Black Caucus here.
