ASUSU executive council seeks to diversify events
USU campus events will be undergoing some changes this fall, said Zach Larsen, this year’s ASUSU vice president of programming. The ASUSU executive council is creating a set of new programs intended to appeal to a wider range of students. Students will also have the opportunity to receive emails informing them of upcoming events. There will also be added incentives for students to attend multiple events.
ASUSU President Erik Mikkelsen said students should get involved and attend as many programs as possible to get more out of their college experience.
“Everything we do is funded by student fees,” said Mikkelsen. “Part of their student fees go to funding all the programs that we run. So the more involvement that students have with that, the more they’re going to get out of that student fee.”
Event Emails
Mikkelsen said the executive council hopes to get the word out to students about all the events going on. To do this, the council will encourage students to sign up for a weekly email that will contain information on all the events for the week.
“Anyone who wants to sign up for the email will be able to get it and they will be able to see all the activities that are going to go on that week,” Mikkelsen said.
Students will also be able to sign up for the event at the Day on the Quad, on the 3rd floor of the Taggart Student Center or online.
Mikkelsen said the email program is still under development but will be up and running soon.
Event Series
The Aggie Event Series is a series of programs designed to appeal to all students, Larsen said. He said the event series was made “to reach out to other groups that might not come to the traditional activities, and make sure there is something enjoyable for every student.”
Larsen said that the Aggie Event Series will include activities like a speed dating night and comedians. The traditional events like Homecoming and the HOWL will still take place, he said, but in addition to that there will be monthly events. Larsen said he will try to have it on the first Thursday of every month in order to create consistency. The idea is that students will know there is something to do, even if they haven’t heard about it yet, he said.
Larsen said there will also be a cinema series where ASUSU executive council will screen movies monthly for students to come and view.
Aggie Activities Card
Another incentive for students to attend events is the Aggie Activities Card.
Kellen Hansen, activities director for the Student Traditions Activities and Arts Board (STAB,) said the council is “working on a card where if you show up to an event – a certain number of events throughout the year – you could potentially get the chance to get into one of our events for free.”
The card could potentially allow students to get into Mardi Gras for free if they have attended at least eight events.
“We’re going to be giving them out at the info booth downstairs, the bottom floor of the TSC or at events,” said Larsen.
Volunteer Punch Card
Along with the Aggie Activities Card, STAB is giving out a volunteer punchcard. This card will provide incentives for students to volunteer at any STAB event.
“For each event that you volunteer at your going to get what’s called Aggie Bucks,” Larsen said. “At the end of each semester we’re going to have an auction for the volunteers. The more Aggie Bucks you have, obviously the more stuff you can purchase at the auction.”
The card is designed to get students to volunteer at events regularly. Larsen said at the beginning of the year he has plenty of volunteers, but by the end of the semester he’ll be in need of more students.
“The hard thing we have is retaining, so we’re really working on programs to retain volunteers,” he said.
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu