Hello RPI! My name is Matthew Rand, and I am honored to have been elected to be the 128th President of your Union. I am a member of the Class of 2019, a dual materials and mechanical engineering major, and a two year veteran of the Executive Board. I am also the vice president of the men’s club lacrosse team, a brother of Pi Lambda Phi, and the treasurer of the Interfraternity Council.

I joined the E-Board as a freshman in the fall of 2015 representing the Class of 2019. In addition to this role, I served as the chairman of the Policies Committee, where I led projects to update the E-Board’s bylaws, budgeting guidelines, and club classification system. I have worked with the Business Operations Committee, upgrading the McNeil room and implementing a new system for allocating storage space within the Union. For the past two years, I have tried to work beyond my obligations as a Board member by joining multiple committees, working with former PUs Chip Kirchner ’17 and Nick Dvorak ’16 on smaller projects outside the scope of my specified position, and working with the administrative staff to understand the issues they see within the Union and how the E-Board can alleviate those. I am excited for the opportunity to be able to continue this work and to expand upon it to ensure that we as a Union accomplish the most we can in the coming year.

I hope that this year is going to be an exciting one full of accomplishments for the Union. I also promise to make good on my campaign promises and work to incorporate as much feedback from our student body as we can. One of the ways that I will work to accomplish this is by working with Justin Etzine ’18, the Grand Marshal, to hold monthly forums within the Union, where the two of us can give updates on the work that the Senate and the E-Board have done in the previous month. I also want to set up a place in the Union where the Student Government can hang a smart TV and attach two card readers so that we can hold impromptu straw-poll votes on important issues and projects that are being faced by the Student Government. It would also be available for the Student Government Communications Committee to post updates and notifications for all of campus to see.

We will be working hard to try and incorporate more of the general student population into our committees, and I will be issuing an open call to these Committees in the coming days. The best way to ensure that the Union remains student-run and addresses the issues important to our student population is to encourage as many students as possible to join in our work and let their voices be heard.

For any questions, or if you have any suggestions for programs for the Union, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to the opportunity to lead our Union for the next year, and I look forward to working with our student body to ensure that the Union truly becomes a home for all of our students.