By Justin Brugman

For those of you that do not know me, my name is Justin Brugman, and I’m your ASNMU president. During my freshman year, I never would have dreamt of being the student body president for NMU. This may come to a surprise to those of you that know me now, but during my freshmen year, I was very shy and quiet. With that said, my advice to incoming freshmen, as well as all other students, would be to get involved as much as possible. This applies to anyone that isn’t involved on campus yet. It doesn’t matter if it’s residential life, student government, the many Greek organizations on campus or other student organizations. The more you’re involved, the more meaningful your college experience will be.

ASNMU is the official student voice to the school’s administrators, but we also offer many programs that help benefit students’ needs and wants. For example, because of the large amount of students who came a long way to get here, we have the Dozing Discounts program that offers discounts to students at participating hotels if they are too tired to continue their travels.

We have a wonderful core group of ASNMU members, and I’m very excited for everything that we can accomplish this year.

To start the year, we are partnering up with Switchback Gear Exchange and Outfitters to get the bike-share program up and running again. They’re volunteering their time and manpower to help fix the current bikes we have. This is a wonderful opportunity to work with a local business to get this great program working, and to have their business get out there a little more.

We also are looking into better advertising for our pre-existing programs. It has come to my attention that while students know about the Wildcat Wallet program, they don’t know where to find the list of participating businesses. So I’m working with the new chair of Wildcat Wallet, Leann Herrmann, to make students aware of what businesses they can go to for discounts.

If you have any ideas about new programs, I’ve asked the representatives to do one of their two office hours in student heavy areas, like Starbucks or the Marketplace. If you have any issues or questions, please seek them out and address these issues or questions with them. If there is anything else I could suggest it would be say hi to the representatives when you see them and get to know them.

I’m always available for questions, concerns, suggestions, etc. If I am not in the office, I encourage students to email me at [email protected]. I’m always available for questions, concerns, suggestions, etc. if you want me to address anything. Feel free to stop by the ASNMU office in the UC below the Den.

We are currently looking for people to fill some representative positions. If you are interested in serving on the student government, applying is an easy process. On our home page, asnmu.nmu.edu, you’ll find a link that allows you to apply on the board.

Lastly, I would like to thank The North Wind for offering me an opportunity to write a welcome message to you all. I hope to be hearing from you in the near future and I hope that all of you have a good year.