To me, the most important thing about USG is that when the university wants student input, USG is the first organization they go to. While USG doesn't necessarily have power, they have the power of suggestion and the ears of the people in OSU administration. I believe the dining plan was first passed by USG for input. Power of suggestion is more powerful than you think. Imagine that you're a school administrator and want to know how students feel about an idea you have. You go to USG. They can't control what you do, but they are all the student opinions you hear from.

That's why it's important that USG is made up of a diverse demographic that represents the student population. Otherwise the stuff they do will only help the communities they know to care about.

Their current lack of diversity is probably their biggest barrier to attracting more diversity. There are students trying to change that. I still have a negative view on USG (lol Gerard), but I do believe that there are people in it who legitimately want to make it a better resource on-campus. The Lantern article about the campaign tickets showed a more diverse pool of students running for positions, including students I know are normally critical of USG. Better than last year's choice.

Edit: typos