Six months into his job as undergraduate liaison to the board of trustees, fourth-year in the College Rush Atkinson is moving into the job nicely, members of SG said.

“I perform the diplomatic function by reporting to College Council. My goal is to develop intimacy with College Council so that if they feel something needs to be heard it will be heard,” Atkinson said.

Atkinson has worked in three areas so far this year. He has discussed the need for greater school identity, the need for a greater campus community, and the need to improve accessibility of student resources. He said that the need for more school community was something of a running debate among the trustees.

Atkinson characterized the function of the trustees as long-term, looking five years down the road in contrast to the College Council’s more day-to-day duties. “I think there is a monetary, or fiscal, end to that,” Atkinson said. “Happy campers give more back to the camp.”

Atkinson said he urged the trustees to finance events that “increased the sense of school community.” He cited the Festival of The Arts (FOTA), an event attended by many different types of students. “It wasn’t a recommendation, but I gave limited examples,” Atkinson said in reference to FOTA.

Atkinson said that Max Palevsky Residential Commons was a good example of putting student resources in the right place. “When the school renovated the Reynolds Club, it was in anticipation of putting 1000 kids right there and creating a major housing community, and now the Reynolds Club is a keystone.”

Ananya Das, the executive slate’s vice president, said that “part of our campaign platform was to better the brand name of the school by improving communication within the school.

“Like Rush said, what we are working on is how to find commonality and finding better ways for student government to connect to different sections of the student body,” she said.