USG President issues ‘state of USG’ address

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Photo by Chloe Jakiela

USG President Blaine King delivers state of the USG address Monday during USG’s regular meeting time.

Written By Alex Grubbs, USG Beat Writer

The accomplishments, performance and future goals of student government all were included in the first presidential address to students at the university.

“We have seen the highs and lows, but the highs tremendously outweigh the lows,” United Student Government (USG) President Blaine King said in the first State of USG on Monday in the Student Center.

King detailed the progress of the past and current executive cabinet of USG to give an update on what the student government has been doing before and during his two-year tenure.

He triumphed at more student involvement, better communication with several offices and departments on campus and a transformed executive cabinet in terms of their duties — including the communication of the treasurer with clubs and organizations and press secretary with more social media outreach.

“Now don’t get me wrong, these improvements are great, but myself and Vice President [Bobby] Bertha know there are things that need to be fixed,” King said.

In addition to his accomplishments as president, King oversaw the mitigation of several controversies within the legislative body. These included the resignation of former senator Brennan Burke after he made racial remarks at a house party, the resignation of former senator Mario Avila, who accused Treasurer Amedea Baldoni of directly targeting Avila for his conservative beliefs and the recent censure of Baldoni for what was deemed improper conduct.

Other problems that have hit USG include the removal of Aramark as the university’s food provider and the integration of the new food service CulinArt and a funding emergency that left the organization without money.

King hopes to continue to improve on the organization and the university, with hopes of the State of USG being a new tradition.

“I know there will always need to be improvement made within the organization and with Point Park as a whole, but I will continue to work until the new administration is sworn in,” King said.