your Student Union Blog

As we approach the beginning of what promises to be a very exhilarating
school year, we would like to update you on what Student Union (your
undergraduate student government) has been doing this summer and how we’re
putting your $2.1 million to use in this upcoming year.

We have lots of exciting updates - some are things that we mentioned to you
during campaigning while others were projects that SU has been working on
for years.

First, last spring Student Union put significant pressure on Assembly Series
(the campus-wide speaker series) to shift away from the 11AM time slot to
one that is more suitable to students. In addition, we pushed for better
recognized speakers that would appeal to students on a larger scale. To do
this, Student Union created its own speaker series (initially funded by
$40,000).

We are very excited to let you know that Assembly Series has begun to take
its first steps in shifting away from the 11AM time slot starting with its
very first speaker (Maya Lin, the creator of the Vietnam War Memorial, Sept.
6 at 7:30PM).

Other notable speakers that we feel will raise the level of excitement and
discourse on this campus are Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark, NJ and rising
star in the Democratic Party, Sept. 14 at 4PM), Alan Lightman (writer of the
Freshman Reading Program’s “Einstein’s Dreams”, Sept. 19 at 4PM), and Kal
Penn (star of “The Namesake” and Kumar in “Harold and Kumar go to White
Castle”, Oct. 25th at 4PM).

Student Union has played a significant role in advocating for these more
student-friendly times knowing that they will work for a greater amount of
students than the 11AM time slot. In addition, the Assembly Series has done
a great job of providing more well-known, innovative, and relevant speakers
to our undergraduate population. Through our own SU Speaker Series, we have
also managed to book Ken Paulson, the editor of USA Today, who will be here
on April 2nd from 4-5PM.

On another exciting note, we are happy to announce that due to significant
Student Union efforts over the past three years, this Fall students will be
greeted with a comprehensive technology package that will include wireless
in all residential areas (including dorms!), increased levels of minimum
bandwidth, and cable TV access from every room. We will all also benefit
from the addition of an emergency text message service.

Because safety and security are always important issues on campus, we want
to make you aware that in the Fall you will also see the presence of Closed
Circuit Television Cameras in various places around campus. The policy can
be found here: http://police.wustl.edu/CCTV%20Policy.htm . Thw installation
is scheduled to be complete by August 15th.

The final Student Union initiative we wanted to highlight in this e-mail is
the Student Union Readership Program and updates we’ve made to the program.
In 2004, SU representatives decided that in order to burst the WU bubble on
a more consistent basis, SU should buy significant amounts of newspapers and
distribute them across campus. This evolved into the SU Readership Program,
which boasts daily copies of the New York Times, USA Today, and St. Louis
Post-Dispatch on open distribution stands in Mallinckrodt Center, Whispers,
Holmes, Simon Hall, Lab Sci, Bear’s Den, and the Village. This year, we have
decided to increase funding of the program from $43,000 to $52,000 due to a
significant increase in demand for the papers. In addition, we are shifting
a larger number of papers to main campus, specifically the Hilltop Bakery
and Whispers in response to student input. This Fall, we will have increased
the number of newspapers from 700 to about 900 newspapers a day for student
use.

To keep up with campus news, please visit us at http://su.wustl.edu . We
also want to remind everyone that our legislative body meetings are open to
everyone and we encourage you to attend. Come to Treasury and Senate on
Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the Business School at 9PM to learn about
important issues on campus and have your voice heard.

We’ll talk to you soon.

Neil, Brittany, Marius, and Rebecca

E-mail on 7/13/07 to Student Union representatives updating them on our summer so far:

Student Union Representatives,

Somehow, July has snuck up on us. We sit here in the SU offices on July
12th, also famous for being the day on which Brittany Perez was born, and
can’t wait to have all of you back to campus. Brittany, Marius, and I
actually just got back from meeting a group of incoming freshman on their
ArtSci weekend and a riveting game of Taboo. But aside from the games, we’ve
been doing a lot around the SU offices over the summer.

On September 1st and the 2nd, we’ll be having our Fall Student Union Retreat
at the Camp Wyman retreat center. For those who haven’t gone before, it’s a
great opportunity to catch up with fellow SU reps (whether you’re on Senate,
Treasury, Class Council, School Council, Executive Committee, cabinet, etc.)
and plan for the upcoming year.

In addition, we’ll have plenty of time to bond, play cards, and learn a
thing or two about ourselves as leaders. We’ve got some interactive
activities planned (including the ever famous Strengthsquest). We’ll be
leaving after helping with Service First on Saturday at around 6PM and
return to Wash U around the same time the next day. This works well because
there’s no school on Monday, so you’ve got time to relax when you get back.
We only have around 40 spots on the bus, so we’ll start the RSVP process
now. Reply back to president@su.wustl.edu if you will attend.

On another equally exciting front on October 10th and 11th our Executive
Restructuring process plan, led valiantly by Jeff Zove last year, will be
put up to a student vote in a special election. It’s rare for SU to have a
special election and I think we should take advantage of this opportunity.
If you have any items that you think should go up to a student vote
(Constitutional amendment, Exec summer compensation (hah!), or anything else
innovative), now’s the time to bring it up. There are still a few meetings
in September and we can still have Senate and Treasury vote on putting
things on the ballot for the October special election. Let me know if you
have any ideas.

On a different note, you should have received your ASGA login IDs by now. If
you haven’t, let me know and I can go ahead and get you one. Regardless of
if you sign up for their e-mail lists, I think it’s great to look on the
site / send out questions when they come up and you want to hear what people
from a non-WU perspective want to see. And if any of you are interested in
attending a student government conference sometime within the next year, let
me know.

(continued in next e-mail)

I also wanted to update you on what we’ve been doing over the summer. It’s
been about two and a half months so far and with the help of SU reps such as
Jeff Nelson, Cheryl Cooper, Neha Tibrewala, Yewande Alimi, Jennifer Hadley,
Neehar Garg, Aaron Robinson, John Ablan and many others we’ve managed to be
very effective.

With the help of numerous SU members, students will come to campus in the
Fall supported by a brand new Technology Package! For the past few years,
starting with David Ader and Ed Banti and continuing last year with the help
of Paul Moinester, SU has been working hard to improve technology on campus.
Because of the effort of numerous SU reps, I am excited to inform you all of
significant changes that will take place upon your arrival. If you live on
the South 40 or the North Side, you will be able to take advantage of the
new Technology Package which includes significantly increased levels of
bandwidth, cable TV, strong wireless access within the dorms, and the safety
of an emergency text message system. This package has been years in the
making and you’ll be receiving more information on it in the mail. I am
proud to say that years of SU support has resulted in this enormous benefit
to our students.

Another important piece of news - due to a fiscally responsible approach to
the 2007-2008 SU budget, our Category I student groups fundraising
percentage was increased to 87.4%, meaning that these groups have received
more of what they’ve been asking for than at any other point in SU history.
This wouldn’t have been possible without the near unanimous support of the
budget in both Treasury and Senate and your commitment to giving
opportunities to all of our 230+ student groups.

On a similar note, the 2007-2008 budget lowered the amount of money
traditionally allocated to the Assembly Series and instead helped to create
a SU Speaker Series. This decision was made because we felt the Assembly
Series 11AM timeslot was undermining its support among undergraduates at
Washington University.

We are happy to announce that the Assembly Series has received the message
and this Fall, you’ll see a mixed scheduled of times beginning with Maya Lin
(the artist and architect of the Vietnam War memorial) on September 6th at
7:30PM. Also coming at the 4PM time slots are Cory Booker, the mayor of
Newark, NJ (and a rising star in the Democratic Party) and Alan Lightman,
writer of “Einstein’s Dreams” which some of you should be reading this
summer. Another highlight: on October 25th at 4PM, Kal Penn, the star of
“The Namesake” (also known as “Kumar” in “Harold and Kumar”) will be coming
to speak.

On the home front, Bearings 2007-2008 is coming along fantastically.
Bearings Editor Nic Albonico has been doing a great job of compiling the
book in an easy to use way for all students. In addition, we’re going to be
distributing the book door to door during Orientation to all freshman,
thereby increasing our interaction with the incoming class (we need your
help with this!). Even more exciting, by the end of the summer Bearings will
be online and searchable, making it an easily accessible and usable source
of information for all students.

There are a few more things to note, such as our increased financial
commitment to the Student Readership Program, the expansion of the campus
card to include more services (such as using money on your card to buy
things at the campus bookstore and campus eateries), and Student Union’s
role in important discussion regarding how to make the University Center
more student friendly.

It’s really busy over here and over the next few weeks, we’ll be ramping it
up even more. We always want to hear what you think and we can’t wait to see
you all in a few weeks.

Student Union Executive
Neil, Brittany, Marius, and Rebecca