After the Michigan Union reopened on Monday, Central Student Government moved its central offices and meeting space to a permanent location on the third floor of the building. CSG held an open house Monday afternoon to show visitors the new space.
During the renovation from April 2018 to January 2020, CSG’s offices were temporarily moved to North Quad.
Whit Froehlich, speaker of assembly for CSG and a Medical School student, said the new offices better fit the needs of the organization.
“We have a much nicer space now, although the portion that is exclusively ours is smaller,” Froehlich said. “(Our previous Union office) was relatively in a state of disrepair.”
CSG’s previous space included some smaller meeting rooms and chambers that the current offices do not have. Now, CSG will be sharing a larger, renovated meeting room with other student organizations.
Rackham School representative Hayden Jackson said CSG’s temporary office in North Quad was one general room, partitioned into offices by makeshift cubicle walls.
“We have actual walls now, so that’s really nice,” Jackson said. “We can have multiple meetings at once.”
During the construction, CSG would hold their weekly meetings in the Michigan League. Because it was a temporary meeting space, the group had to reserve the space each week and would occasionally have to change rooms. They now have a permanent location for weekly meetings in the Wolverine Room of the Union.
According to CSG representative Sam Braden, an LSA sophomore, sometimes they would have to end their meetings early because of these reservation restraints.
“I think having our own room that we won’t be kicked out of will give us more latitude in what we can do and what we should get done,” Braden said.
Froehlich also said the move puts CSG in a more central location on campus, which he hopes will increase accessibility.
“It’s more in a place where students are going to be than the League was on Tuesday evenings,” Froehlich said. “It’s better to be closer to where students are studying and spending time otherwise, given our role.”