Hello everyone, my name is Erik Swanson and I am the new President of the Union. For those of you who have not met me, I am junior studying Pre-Med/BME and have been involved in the E-Board now for three years. I believe heavily in ethics, professionalism, and enthusiasm, and will carry these ideals into my term as PU.
I want to thank everyone who participated during GM week, making it one of the most successful weeks I have ever seen. Also, I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone who helped me with my campaign to be the 124th President of the Union, and would also like to congratulate Julia Leusner on being elected to the position of Grand Marshal.
As PU, I have a number of very exciting goals for the campus which will hopefully enrich your time at RPI with new activities, events, and friends. There are three main themes that unite my goals: improved club marketing, physical improvement of spaces, and fiscal responsibility.
The first theme will improve the transparency of clubs to the campus. We have over 160 clubs on campus, and with some strategic marketing, I hope you become aware—and perhaps join—many of them. We will create a number of metrics and strategies to help each club advertise to the correct demographic, so that many of the advertisements you will see or hear about, will actually interest you.
The second theme focuses on the student and improving the areas where you most spend of your time. I plan on renovating the games room, continuing to support the Father’s renovation, and working with the Mueller Center, making all these areas conducive to student life. We will improve areas for study, recreation, and most importantly social interaction.
Finally, although RPI is ranked as one of the “best value” institutes, I plan on exercising strict financial practices, making sure that all students get the most value for their activity fee.
While these plans are currently just intangible goals, the Executive Board of next year will bring these to reality. The most important part of the service we provide to you is offered by the hardworking members of the board. I will be putting together a board of professional, diverse, and—most importantly—enthusiastic students. There will be opportunities for students of any year to get involved, make a difference, and build valuable leadership skills. There will be applications for next year’s board placed around the Union by the end of this week, and I encourage anyone who is interested to pick one up, fill it out, or just stop by my office on the third floor of the Union and pick my brain.
As always, I am intently focused on serving every student, and always appreciate constructive criticism, ideas, or a hand in a project. To conclude, I will leave you with a challenge for the following year: join a club or a greek house, participate in at least one event that you wouldn’t normally attend, or stop by my office and let me know what needs improvement. I wish you all the best of luck for the following year, and really appreciate the privilege to serve you!
