Student Union

Student Body President, Jeff Nelson, talks about Student Union efforts to begin the creation of a comprehensive student portal and responsibly restructure dining hours in the month October. Nelson also highlights examples of student activism on campus.

Over the past couple of days I have issued two executive orders and one memorandum that aim to make Student Union a more open, transparent and accessible organization that effectively works on behalf of students. Please refer to the summaries below or the attached documents for more information.

Presidential Memorandum of August 4, 2009
This memorandum directs all officers in the executive branch to blog about meetings with administrators on the Student Union website or the website of a subsidiary governing body within the executive branch. The memorandum also directs all executive officers and executive advisors to post a message on the Student Union twitter informing the public about upcoming meetings with administrators.

The goal of this memorandum is to make Student Union more transparent in our dealings with administrators. Students will be able to see who we are meeting with and learn more about what we are discussing.

Executive Order 908041 of August 4, 2009
This order directs the President of Student Union to post all Executive Council to the Student Union website no later than one week after meeting has occurred. It also outlines three processes by which constituents may gain access to portions of minutes from Executive Council meetings. 

The goal of this order is to make Student Union more open to the student body. The Student Union Executive Council advises the President in the functioning of Student Union and makes many important decisions that affect the daily lives of students. Traditionally, these meetings are closed, through the President may invite constitutents at his discretion, and the minutes are private to ensure that sensitive items may be discussed and that officers can offer candid counsel. In order to respect these needs, but also make the Executive Council more open and transparent, this order ensures that agendas will be posted online so students will know what business is being discussed, and it outlines a process for students to get more information about what is discussed in the meetings when necessary.

Executive Order 908061 of August 6, 2009
This order directs each executive officer to regularly hold a minimum of 8 officer hours per week in the Student Union office. It also directs the Recruitment and Retention committee in conjunction with the Public Relations committee to develop ways for executive officers to be accessible and interact with constituents outside of the Student Union office.

The goal of this order is to make Student Union more accessible. Officers should have reliable times that students can reach them within the office, but we should also make an attempt to be accessible outside of the Student Union office.

Each of these directives goes into affect on September 1, 2009. Please post comments with you thoughts.

I took over the Executive Committee Restructuring project 10 months ago. I am happy that it has finally been completed. More importantly, I am happy that the final proposal is one that passed almost unanimously in Senate and Treasury and, for the most part, has the support of the groups who were formerly Executive Committees.

This process has taught me a lot. The most interesting thing that I have learned is that there is a huge disconnect between Student Union and student groups/students.