Undergraduate Student Government President Mark Okocha and Vice President Morgan Booker have been working hard on campus toward several goals of sustainability, student wellness and improved campus relations.

Currently, Okocha and Booker are seniors. Okocha is majoring in supply chain management and Booker is majoring in criminal justice and political science.

One of the reasons that caused them to campaign together is due to the value USG has on campus in terms of representing the students as part of The University of Akron’s shared governance.

“I’ve always respected that value and thought I could help improve our position as well as foster growth here at the University,” Okocha said.

According to a previous Q&A with The Buchtelite, Okocha and Booker ran their campaign with three core values in mind: transparency, inclusion and community.

However, when the time came to announce the results of the election, there were some grievances due to unclear election rules in terms of social media usage by each set of candidates.

There had been confusion on whether tweets or posts on various social media by student organizations counted as support or endorsements, which would determine if additional paperwork was required.

Since then, the USG election rules have been updated by the Elections Board and the Judicial Branch.

“The Judicial Branch worked to figure that out in the fairest way possible,” Booker said. “Especially with the timing of it too because it happened right at the end of the election cycle and then we went on spring break.”

Now, after holding their respective positions since the Spring 2019 semester, two additional core values have been added to their focus as student leaders on campus: sustainability and student wellness.

Okocha intends on creating additional events for students to attend on campus as well as supporting student organizations wanting to complete projects related to sustainability at UA.

“One of the things I want to do when it comes to sustainability is helping to fund different organizations’ sustainability efforts,” Okocha said.

As far as wellness on campus, both Okocha and Booker have two main pieces of advice for all students. One piece of advice is to get involved with a student organization on campus.

Booker said that being involved with a student organization is one of the reasons she stayed at UA after her first semester of classes.

Meanwhile, Booker also recommends for students to take their time throughout college in order to enjoy the memories made with friends and the freedom that comes with those memories.

“Because as my dad would always say, college is the time where you have the most amount of freedom and almost the least amount of responsibilities that you’ll have in your life,” Booker said.

In addition to working with students at UA, Okocha and Booker are excited to be working with President-elect Gary Miller as one of his main focuses is on student success.

At the Board of Trustees meeting where Miller was introduced, Booker said that Miller immediately went over to Okocha and herself to shake their hands and show his interest in sitting down to talk with them.

“To have someone of that stature on campus put an emphasis and a value on students like that… it really said something about who he is as a person,” Booker said.

“We’re really excited that his emphasis is on student success because I think student success is very important to the function and continued work that this University does,” Okocha said.

Okocha and Booker encourage students to follow USG on Twitter and Instagram to stay up-to-date on how to get involved with their governing body, as well as to participate in the events sponsored by USG.