Eron Maltzman, GSB ’25, will assume the role of executive president of the Fordham University Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) while current Executive President Lucas Hjertberg, FCRH ’26, studies abroad in Madrid, Spain, for the spring 2025 semester. Carter Soderberg, GSB ’27, will assume the role of executive vice president alongside Maltzman next semester.
During the fall 2021 semester, Maltzman joined USG as a member of the budget committee. In the first semester of his sophomore year, he became the vice chair of the budget committee. When the chair stepped down, Maltzman took over as USG’s vice president of budgets and finance, leading the budget committee for two semesters before studying abroad in London.
“I didn’t go the traditional senator route, but I had more exposure to the e-board side of things and working closely with them,” Maltzman said.
Maltzman said that his two years on the budget committee aided him considerably with his interpersonal skills, particularly when it came to working with Fordham’s administration and student leaders.
“Budget is one of the committees on USG that has to work hand-in-hand with administration, constantly asking questions and collaborating back and forth,” Maltzman said. “So I think that helped form the relationships that I needed with OSI, student organizations and the planning team. A lot of the skills people think you need for budget is math, but it’s more about communicating with club leaders and administration. At the end of the day, I think that’s what’s most transferable.”
Although Maltzman has been in the role of executive vice president for almost two months, he clarified that the transition was not seamless. For example, since he hadn’t served as a USG senator, Maltzman had to learn the process for passing proposals.
“Learning how the proposal process works was a bit of a hump for me, but now I’m in a very good spot,” Maltmaz said. “I’ve had a meeting with every single senator so far about what ideas they want to pursue and how I can help them with proposal writing.”
A few proposals that senators have been working on since last semester include a composting proposal, working with the Office of Disability Services and finding improvements within Health Services such as website bugs, transparency with costs and wait times. In September, USG went to the Bronx Zoo to brainstorm nearly 30 initiative proposals. Maltzman said that this semester, USG has passed a proposal to implement bi-weekly payments for student workers instead of monthly payments. Maltzman said the idea was administered after USG presented the idea to Michael Trerotola, chief of staff to President Tania Tetlow.
Maltzman also reflected on the institutional changes within USG this semester, noting that he and Hjertberg have been focusing on making the organization more welcoming and transparent.
“In the past, USG has been a very toxic place and they haven’t been very transparent with people. That’s something Lucas and I wanted to focus heavily on,” he said. “In our first meeting, I said that every year I’ve been on USG it hasn’t felt like one community. Something Lucas and I both prided ourselves on was getting people to feel like USG was a place to be open and build a respectful environment.”
Looking forward to next semester, Maltzman said that the biggest challenge he anticipates is the inter-year transition, commenting that Hjertberg was not positive that he was going to study abroad until recently.
“We didn’t go into this knowing that Lucas was for sure going to study abroad. I think the fact that the two executive roles are changing mid-year is something we’re going to have to adjust to,” he said.
Looking forward to next semester, Maltzman said his primary goals as executive president include making sure that USG is running as efficiently as possible, effectively reaching students and increasing transparency. Maltzman is currently collaborating with the women’s basketball team to drive student engagement while Hjertberg is working closely with the president’s office and clubs.
“I don’t think there’s a need for a giant organizational change, it’s just responding to student needs which we can always do a better job of,” Maltzman said. “I wouldn’t say there’s one giant, holistic thing we’re working towards, it’s just small pieces that fit together to be a ‘USG solution.’ It’s a matter of talking to different people. At the end of the day, that’s a majority of what this job is — communication. Continuing to do that in a good way is the main goal.”
