CORRECTION APPENDED SEE BOTTOMStudent Union President Jason Gray '10 praised students for becoming more involved in making University-related decisions in his State of the Union Address last Tuesday.

Gray spoke about the effect on the student body of the the University's attempt to discontinue merit aid portability to study abroad Jan. 16. He said that the lack of student input in the process of reaching the decision prompted the Union to express its disagreement with this policy.

"We worked with Academic Services to create a representative committee including faculty, students and staff and an online forum for greater student input. Soon after, the decision to restrict the portability of merit aid was reversed," Gray said.

Gray also addressed the University's sudden decision to close the Rose Art Museum without the campus community's involvement. "After the initial statements regarding the Rose and during the ensuing controversy, the Union worked with the administration to hold multiple student forums, giving students an opportunity to directly engage with the administration and to be active members of our democracy."

He reflected that as a result of such open conversation, the Rose committee, composed of students, faculty and administrators, has been created to make recommendations for the Rose Museum's future.

Gray acknowledged the impact of the financial crisis on club funding and that "clubs want to do more, but they have had to cut back on the number of events, decrease the scale of programming and have had difficulty expanding."

He emphasized that because there is no more rollover from the Student Activities Fund, which is traditionally 1 percent of student tuition, club leaders are still in need of funding. "[The Union has] asked, in no uncertain terms, that the Board of Trustees uncap the [Student Activities Fund] and give clubs the money that they deserve."

A new Student Activities Fund management system has also been implemented, Gray said. The system will "allow club leaders to, in real time, know how much money they have and what have they spent. It will create more responsive and more transparent finances," according to Gray.

Gray listed the creation of the Senate Outreach Committee, a new taskforce on communications, as one of the Union's accomplishments this year. The committee aims to keep students in the know about Union activities by posting flyers and sending campus-wide e-mails about Union events.

He also talked about the Union's new Web site, which will soon be online and which he hopes will "create as many ways as possible for students to speak and for their government to listen."

He listed some of the accomplishments of on-campus clubs, such as the Brandeis chapter of Colleges Against Cancer raising $90,000 last year in a Relay for Life and the English Language Learning club gathering 100 students to tutor Facilities Services and cafeteria workers.

"We have come a long way in a year, but we can go so much farther. . If we embrace and emphasize outreach, student involvement and student rights, there is no limit to what this Union and this community can accomplish together," Gray said

In an interview following the address, Gray emphasized that the Union has "created a culture in which students need to be involved in the decisions made by the administration in a way that has never existed before, and I think that this idea needs to be taken and run with in the future."

"I think his speech was one of the most outstanding you can imagine from a student leader," said Rena Olshansky '56, a member of the Board of Trustees' Students and Enrollment Committee, who said that it was her first State of the Union address. Commenting on the Union Rena said, "I think the [students] set their agenda, and that's important."

University Provost Marty Krauss, who attended the speech, said in an interview with the Justice, "[Gray] has a tremendous amount of respect among the members of the administration because he's a mature person; he's diplomatic; he thinks about the perspectives of many constituencies; he's smart; and he makes really good recommendations, and he gets things done."

Senior Vice President of Communications Lorna Miles, who also attended, added that Gray "has been incredibly vital; his legacy is having created a consciousness in the University among the administration and the faculty that students are part of the day-to-day governance of this community."

Nipun Marwaha '12, senator for Massell Quad, said, "What [Gray] has done for the Union and the student body is outstanding."

Correction: The article originally incorrectly identified a student's class year. Jason Gray's class year is 2010, not 2011.