“On behalf of the Associated Student Government, I am very concerned about the Buchtelite’s reporting of ASG along with its reporting in general. They have time and time again neglected to use the facts and basic journalism skills that are much needed in creating a professional newspaper.”
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On behalf of the Associated Student Government, I am very concerned about the Buchtelite’s reporting of ASG along with its reporting in general.

They have time and time again neglected to use the facts and basic journalism skills that are much needed in creating a professional newspaper.

Many times, the Buchtelite has written negatively about ASG without taking the time to find out what is really going on.

I have not responded in the past because I kept holding an optimistic viewpoint that if I took the high road and did not respond, our organizations could somehow come out with a working relationship in the hopes of partnering for a better campus community.

After the most recent article though, I realize my hope is diminished until the leadership in the Buchtelite is changed.

Although I do not expect an apology or an admission of guilt from the Buchtelite, as the ASG president, I do feel that it is my responsibility to clear up the misrepresentations the Buchtelite has presented about ASG.

The Buchtelite has continually accused ASG of consisting of a bunch of students playing politics. In actuality, though, we are simply students working to help our fellow students out by improving our university. Besides the campaigning for positions, there is actually little politics involved in ASG.

Instead of playing politics, we do real things that help out our fellow students. The Buchtelite has asked us what our specific accomplishments are, so I will briefly discuss what we have accomplished in the short seven months we have been working so far this year.

1) Campus Readership

Program

We have brought The New York Times, USA Today, and the Akron Beacon Journal to campus for students to read.

2) FAFSA Clinic

We held a FAFSA Clinic to help students fill out the form and get the financial aid they deserve.

3) Dress for Success

We have planned a Dress for Success program to educate the student body on how to best dress during an interview.

4) Financial awareness

clinic

We brought in a financial planning expert to go through basic finances with students.

5) Tax preparation service

We are currently sponsoring a free tax preparation service to help students fill out their taxes.

6) Ruckus

Due to ASG’s support, this music sharing system will be coming to campus so students can legally download music for free.

7) Safety walks

We have held (and plan to do more) safety walks to find where safety problems are on campus.

8) Safety and parking forums

We have planned two forums: one to address students’ safety concerns on campus and the other to address parking concerns.

9) Parking appeals

Our judicial branch has gone through parking appeals to ensure students are paying only the parking tickets they deserve to pay.

10) Student organizations

We have worked with and registered many student organizations that add to the many leadership opportunities on campus.

Truthfully, though, ASG’s biggest impact does not usually come from the more tangible initiatives we take on. Much more of our influence and results are harder to measure, because much of our work comes from simply representing students to the administration and lawmakers.

ASG has been very influential and representative of students in a number of important university-wide committees.

We have helped formulate a new policy for Student Judicial Affairs, worked to create a new fee structure for students, been a integral part of the University Council initiative, worked to increase recycling on campus, addressed parking concerns, represented students in numerous searches for administrators and represented students in capital planning issues, just to name a few.

Some of these initiatives are ongoing, so we will be working very hard in the future to make sure students’ concerns and voices are heard on these issues.

Furthermore, even though I believe we have had numerous successes in the past seven months, our work is far from complete.

To make great, tangible changes in the higher educational field takes hours of work, evening after evening of meetings, outside research and much more than seven months.

This is why we have initiated a number of great projects that, although we have not seen through to fruition yet, you better believe we will continue to work on them in the coming months and years. These projects include:

1) A student handbook (to be completed by fall ’07)

2) Memorial services for University of Akron students who die throughout the school year (to be completed by spring ’08)

3) A new full service restaurant on campus (fall ’09)

4) Increasing student engagement opportunities (continuous)

5) Representing students in governmental affairs (continuous)

6)
Various recycling projects around campus (continuous)

I hope this explanation of what ASG has done already, and will continue to do, has reassured the student body that we are working tirelessly on their behalf and are a necessary asset to the campus.

I also extend yet another invitation for the Buchtelite to attend anything hosted by ASG, as it has only come to one of the countless events and meetings we have had so far this year.

As for the presidential race being uncontested, I take it as a testament that ASG has done great work so far this year, and that both current members of ASG and the student body have faith that myself and the organization will continue to achieve better results.

We plan to do just that.

ASG president
Kyle Bohland
Junior
Economics

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