A.S. COUNCIL ‘mdash; Amid the bickering and bubbly self-promotion of last week’s A.S. election, one promise from nearly every candidate was clear: A.S. councilmembers want to increase their communication with the general student body.
Of course, we’ve heard it all before. Year after year, candidates recognize the huge disconnect between the average UCSD student and his or her student government; year after year, candidates have pledged greater visibility and more direct interaction ‘mdash; only to shove that goal to the side once midterms and 14-hour council meetings start popping up.
Take our current A.S. President Donna Bean, for example. When she ran for vice president of student life in 2007, she said she would reach out to student organizations by personally attending their meetings in order to strengthen their input to the council. The next year, in her unopposed bid for A.S. president, Bean underscored the fact that students still lack power over their programs, events and student life. Yet as her presidency nears an end, little has been done to reach out to the greater student body. Efforts have been stagnant, stopping at Facebook pages, posters and student forums ‘mdash; all of which require students to come to councilmembers.
Many ideas from this year’s candidates were similarly flawed. If done right, regularly updating the A.S. Web site, releasing YouTube addresses, distributing student surveys, writing newsletters and updating Facebook accounts would all be helpful steps toward a more connected student body ‘mdash; but these ideas must only be supplementary to face-to-face interactions. The reality is that most UCSD students are too distracted with academic and social concerns to actually pay attention to the A.S. Council’s activities.
Despite the $477,000 in student fees allocated by the A.S. Council to programming this year alone, a scanty 24.3 percent of students voted in the election. This apathy is exactly why A.S. representatives must spend more time seeking out students’ opinions in the form of a Library Walk info table, weekly visits to student organizations and regular contact with college councils. Still, new electees’ promises to A.S. visibility are missing something: the assurance that, once the year starts rolling, this priority won’t be thrown to the curb.
That’s why next year’s council should create a student volunteer group whose sole responsibility would be to gather student input. If they’re promising a stronger A.S. presence on Library Walk, they could create a weekly schedule and assign slots to ensure someone will always be outside tabling. Individual volunteers could be assigned to different locations around campus (like dining halls or Geisel) and establish a relationship with students who hang out in their assigned areas. The students could be responsible for writing feedback reports every two weeks so the entire council can stay informed on the undergraduate population’s concerns.
Councilmembers who want to move forward with other technologybased ideas should assign specific individuals to keep tabs on those avenues of communication, too. Between Feb. 23 and April 9, the only two posts on the A.S. Facebook page pertained to the elections. There was no mention of happenings in the university’s speech policy committee, the Literature Building cancer cluster or changes in the council’s standing rules, despite the significant council time spent on each. Even more alarming is how few students check the page in the first place. If it w
ere one person’s job to recruit fans, facilitate discussions or post weekly summaries of council meetings, avenues like Facebook wouldn’t remain widely ignored. If online networking is something candidates are banking on for increased student communication, it should be used right.
The average college student is sleep deprived and stressed out, and hardly wants to learn about his or her major, let alone campus politics. Nonetheless, next year’s councilmembers must abandon the comfortable ‘if you build it they will come’ attitude and start seeking out student input. Constructing a system of student outreach within the council infrastructure might not necessarily mean every student’s voice will be heard, but it’s a sure step to widening the council’s listening range.
Readers can contact Alyssa Bereznak at [email protected].