ASUSU begins implementing Hall’s proposed compact planning system
A major goal of the new Associated Students of Utah State University Executive Council for next year will be writing legislation that meets students needs, if current compact plans are put into place.
At the council’s last meeting of the year, members discussed tentative compacts – negotiated operating plans – they hope to integrate into the council’s operating compact.
All tentative compacts discussed mention better legislation as a goal.
Compact planning is an operating system USU President Kermit L. Hall has been pushing for since he came to campus January. It requires organizations to develop concrete, workable goals to guide them.
Last week, ASUSU President Steve Palmer asked the three groups of ASUSU – legislators, programmers and senators – to meet and formulate rough drafts of compacts they see as being important for each group’s function. Palmer said the plan is now for Palmer and the presidents of each group to meet several times over the summer and use the groups’ compacts to create one compact for the entire council.
Family Life Senator Kristen Stokes presented the senators’ compact and said their compact reflects Hall’s goals for the university.
“Our overall vision would be raising the benchmark,” she said. Hall has called this his goal several times and has begun a statewide tour by that name.
She said the senators have three principles to help in that goal, including increasing senators’ awareness of students, using more effective legislation to benefit students, and raising student awareness of and involvement in senators’ activities.
“A way for us to really represent the students is knowing what they want,” she said.
ASUSU Executive Vice President Celestial Starr Bybee said because legislators deal with university administration a lot, the legislators’ compact set as a major goal representing students to the administration.
She said they also hoped to “bridge the third-floor gap” – the perception that ASUSU members, most of whose offices are on the third floor of the Taggart Student Center, operate separately from student life and that the officers are inaccessible to students. Palmer said last week he has the same goal for the council as a whole.
Bybee said legislators also want to introduce legislation worth the time spent on it.
She mentioned several methods for achieving those goals, including making use of Public Relations Vice President Nollie Dockum Haws to inform students, using a proposed new student advisory board to gather student input and use it effectively in on-campus work and in lobbying the Utah Legislature and writing summary papers with well-researched pros and cons for each piece of legislation introduced.
“We want to do our research well and bring quality legislation,” Bybee said.
Speaking for the programmers, Arts and Lectures Vice President Sara Diem said student input and involvement is important in their compact as well.
“Our main goal is to put the biggest effort out to the students,” she said.
She said she wants regular “res hall calls,” where programmers visit on-campus residence halls and let students know how they can get involved.
She said programmers also want to increase attendance at ASUSU-sponsored events.
“Otherwise, there’s no reason for us having events,” Diem said.
Palmer said although the process for developing a compact for the council now rests mostly on himself, Stokes, Bybee and Diem, the rest of the council will be consulted often as the compact develops.
“We can’t put this together with just the [four] of us,” he said.