Junior Ori Gutin wants to make sure every student’s voice is heard if they want someone to listen to them. And he hopes he can offer an ear as this university’s SGA president.
“I think SGA is a very exclusive organization. … We don’t do much outreach; we don’t consult with other student organizations on a consistent basis,” said Gutin, the Student Government Association’s sustainability director. “If any student does have something they want their voice to be heard on, they need to know that SGA can be a resource and we can work with students.”
Gutin, who is the Voice Party SGA presidential candidate for the 2015-16 academic year, said his experience with the Sustainability Committee will help him create a more inclusive SGA.
This year, the committee had more than 30 students attending meetings regularly and about 125 total members, growing from the five-person committee Gutin had when he took over as director two years ago, he said.
“I think I could do that on a larger scale with the whole SGA and work to transform all the committees that we have,” said Gutin, an environmental science and policy major.
But becoming involved in politics and the environment is something that happened as he transitioned to college. During high school in Rockville, Gutin said he was more of a jock and class clown — he spent most of his time playing baseball and considered playing at the college level.
“People who know me in high school are shocked at who I am now,” Gutin said.
He spent three years living in Israel from eighth to 10th grade, which he said was challenging, especially being away from some family members and speaking Hebrew, a language he had only learned in school.
“Learning to acclimate to a new situation was pretty hard, but it was a really great experience that I’ve had,” Gutin said. “I learned to incorporate [myself] into different cultures; [it] gave me a perspective on life that I can jump into very different groups.”
However, he credits a senior-year trip to Fiji, Australia and New Zealand with helping him discover his passion for the environment and conservation.
“This experience of being in places that are so beautiful, and I felt so connected to and also discussing how they were being influenced and manipulated … It radically changed who I was; it got me inspired around environmentalism and environmental action,” Gutin said.
He said he was disheartened when he didn’t find a large community based around environmentalism when he arrived at this university and considered transferring before he decided to take it upon himself to build such a group.
Now in his second year as sustainability director, Gutin said his proudest accomplishment is creating that community for people invested in green thinking and living.
He has helped lead initiatives such as a student-led push for the university to purchase all energy from clean and renewable sources by 2020, which university President Wallace Loh adopted in April 2014.
If elected, Gutin also hopes to create in-person training for sexual assault prevention and a sexual assault survivor bill of rights and allocate SGA funds toward hosting a multicultural group event each month.
Gutin serves as the undergraduate representative on the University Sustainability Council and is a sustainability adviser for the Office of Sustainability. He also interns with the College Park City-University Partnership, is a member of co-op housing and sits on College Park’s Diversity of Student Housing Options Subcommittee.
“I’ve learned to maneuver my way through the university,” Gutin said. “I know how to have the conversations that bring change in that way, but I also know how to inspire students to want to get involved.”
Sophomore Maya Spaur worked with Gutin on the Sustainability Committee and said she thinks he can help make the SGA more inclusive and involve more students.
“Ori has always been open and transparent; no secrets, no closed doors with Ori,” the environmental science and technology and government and politics major said. “He really tries to get every student involved, and he really wants to empower every student to make a difference.”
One of Gutin’s more controversial pieces of legislation was to allocate $5,000 — 10 percent of the SGA’s legislative budget — toward Campus Creek restoration efforts. The SGA’s contribution amounted to about 1 percent of the project’s funding.
The impact it had went beyond the financial contribution by spurring more donations from university departments, as well as the Friends of the Golf Course group, Gutin said.
Although Gutin is aware that sustainability has been the focus of his experiences, he said it wouldn’t hinder his success if elected.
“I do have a lot to learn about how the campus works and what issues need the most attention,” he said. “But I can say I will commit 150 percent of my time to become so well-versed.”
Mark Stewart, Office of Sustainability senior project manager, said he has worked with Gutin on several issues, such as allocating the university’s sustainability fund toward different campus projects.
“He has always stood out to me as one of the most impressive student leaders,” Stewart said. “His ability to motivate others and be humble and fun has been really effective in gaining support.”
The past four days have been tiring, Gutin said, but he’s enjoyed talking to students around the campus to hear everyone’s voice — as his party’s name suggests.
“It’s not about getting them to support us; it’s about establishing a connection,” he said. “We want to make sure the students’ voice is united and amplified and heard across campus.”
