Our Booth Student Advisory Council Leadership Experience

Bilal Baqar –  Outreach Chair

Responsibilities in SAC
Outreach Committee: Responsible for supporting collaboration with Full-Time and Executive MBA Programs at Booth, the greater UChicago committee, and other business schools.
 
I represent the Part-Time MBA students on the UChicago Graduate Council, which is the representative student government of the 9000+ graduate students at UChicago. I am also in the Graduate Council’s Committee on elections. The committee is responsible for conducting free and fair elections for positions like the liaison to the board of trustees.
 
What events have you run over the past months or are planning for in the future?
My focus has been on identifying new avenues for outreach and establishing relationships with key stakeholders that can be beneficial for the Part-Time student community in the long-run. I have connected SAC with the Part-Time student government at Kellogg and we have a student mixer for both schools coming up this month. I have also connected SAC with the Student Partnership Council (SPC), which is the student government of Booth’s Executive MBA Program, and are planning a mixer with them in March as well.  
 
I advocate for the best interests of Booth’s student body. As the representative of Part-Time MBA students at the Graduate Council, I have conveyed our stance on important matters like the safety and security of students, the effect of remote learning modalities on students, and universities policies and response to COVID. I also ensure that Part-Time students attend Graduate Council events. In the Fall Quarter, we had our annual Gargoyle Gala and a winter social planned at Rock Bottom Brewery.
 
I am also the co-chair of the Outdoors Club and am working with SAC to introduce a summer trip this year, which will be the Part-Time community’s second largest outdoors event alongside the annual ski trip.

Why did you choose to get involved with SAC?
My Booth experience wouldn't have been complete without engaging in activities outside the classroom. Social events provided great opportunities to socialize, meet new people and just have fun, but I wanted to be part of the team that organized them. SAC provided a great opportunity for me to work with like-minded people who wanted to give back to the Booth community.

I saw outreach as a good committee to start with because there is a lot of flexibility on what I could work on and no ceiling to what I could do. It was a great opportunity to network with interesting people across different avenues. I had already been affiliated with the UChicago community for three years, so I knew I could definitely succeed in this role and give back to the Part-Time community.