Editor's Note: The Poly sent a questionnaire to every candidate that had filed to run for GM, PU, and UP prior to Spring break. Below are the unedited responses from PU candidate Kate Goldstein '26, '27G.

1.Why do you want to be President of the Union?

I want to be the President of the Union to improve the Executive Boards Operations and external communication. Over the past three years I have seen positive changes in these issues, however no board has yet to balance the short allotted time for training and the extensive amount of time spent on budgeting. Additionally, the communication between clubs and the executive board tends to fall short with clubs accidentally mismanaging money (due to lack of knowledge) and the overall deadlines that we set for them (such as budgeting).

2. What qualifies you to be President of the Union?

I have served on the Executive Board for the past three years as a voting representative. In addition to that I have been the Marketing & Strategy Committee Chair (which previously was did not have an active chair before I stepped in) in which we have accomplished enforcement of a new sign policy, sign holders on the 15th street stairwell and Lobby Weekly Calendar, and Union Admin Office Bulletin Board filled with useful information for clubs that include: reserving rooms, club master list, how to start a club, how to obtain club storage, rules for postering, and union additional Union resources. I have also had the opportunity to serve as a committee chair for a special committee that investigated clubs and their classifications. In this committee, we dove into over ten years of information based on how a club should be classified as Union-Funded, Union-Recognized, or Union-Affiliated. Within this, we rewrote Section 2 of the Rensselaer Union Guidelines and Procedures (RUGP). In this we better defined the club resources for all clubs, a club renewal process, and a more defined probation status. I have been a part of Club Operations, Business Operations Committees, and Special Committee on Union Operating Hours. Last but not least, over the past few years I have developed the necessary relationships with the Union Admin.

3. Name three short-term goals (within your term of office) and three long-term goals (beyond your term of office) that you have for the Executive Board.

Short-Term Goals

  1. External communication is critical for every club and member of the Union and needs to be improved. This may be through updated forms that are easy to follow such as Purchase Request Orders, Executive Board Cover Sheet, and Concur Profile Request.
  2. Better financial training is needed to ensure that clubs are properly prepared for the day to day business items, as well as long term budgeting.
  3. Day to day board operations can be improved upon by properly delegating specific tasks to members. This is currently being improved upon with standard operation procedures (created by myself, the current Vice President of Rules and Special Projects, and other members of the board), however more improvements are still yet to be made.

Long-Term Goals

  1. Beyond the continued operations of the Union and serving the students I don’t have any long term goals because I am focusing on many of the solvable issues that I have seen on the board during my tenure.

4. In your own words, what do you feel are the roles of the President of the Union and the Union Executive Board? Do you think the current Executive Board is fulfilling that role? If any, what changes could be made?

The President of the Union, in addition to presiding over the meetings, is to be a manager for everyone else on the board. It is their job to ensure that everyone has the resources to succeed and to keep them on track when they struggle. Likewise, the Union Executive Board's job is to ensure that all clubs are receiving the right information at the proper time and being an overall knowledge base for anyone that needs to know about Union operations, facilities, and clubs. I believe that the Executive Board exceeds in certain parts of that, but unfortunately fails to properly inform the students about all of the necessary information. With that being said, as the President of the Union, I would have my board deliver the proper information to the clubs via first offering a club welcome back packet that includes when budgeting will take place, when financial training will be, what will be learned in financial training, all of the resources to which the Union offers, and the list of committees that the Executive Board has to offer to encourage change within the Union.

5. What do you think are the incumbent President of the Union’s strengths and weaknesses? What are your strengths and weaknesses that could affect the role? What would you do to improve upon them if you were elected?

The current President of the Union does a good job of trying to understand where everyone’s head is at and hears many opinions during meetings.This has kept meetings efficient and with little confusion for new members of the board. If I were elected, I would improve upon delegated work within the board as sometimes the current President of the Union gets too excited and chooses to do the work themselves and not trust their appointed members to do their own work.

6. What does the club-Executive Board representative relationship look like? What should it look like?

It currently looks like you contact them for budgeting and they contact you for anything else. For the representative side there should be additional training on how everything inside the Union Administration and operations works, so that these questions can be answered by any of the reps. I trust that whoever I appoint will represent their clubs well.

7. How would you evaluate the current Union budget situation? What do you foresee as future budget concerns?

With the largest class in RPI history graduating this year, the budgeting situation is left in a rocky place. Like this year, the board will need to take into account data to determine how to best utilize the next fiscal year's funds.

8. How do you intend to encourage students to fully utilize the resources of the Union?

Improved signage, communication to clubs about the spaces and resources available to them as part of the beginning of the year email that will be part of the club renewal process, and utilizing the Executive Communications Committee to communicate to students directly.

9. How do you plan to engage with the President of the Institute and the rest of Institute Administration?

Although I do plan to maintain proper contact with the President and the rest of the Institute's Administration, that job does fall primarily on the Grand Marshall.

10. What qualities should a leader have? How are you a leader?

A good leader should be able to listen to those around them and properly delegate. I have learned these skills from my time in and outside of the Union.