In-depth: Goals and accomplishments of USUSA executive officers
Trevor Sean Olsen
President
Pre-Election Goals:
1. Implement dining options that “better represent what students desire.”
– Not accomplished –
Upon taking office, Olsen discovered that steps were already being taken to improve dining options for students. According to Olsen, Alan Andersen, the university’s Vice President for Business and Finance in charge of dining services, expressed that he was already interested in improving dining options for students and that “he didn’t want me to waste all of my time working on it,” Olsen said. “So he kind of just took over.”
2. Help make administration more accessible/visible.
– Not accomplished –
Again, Olsen said he didn’t realize until after taking office that USU’s administrators were already making efforts to be available for students. According to Olsen, President Albrecht already holds open office hours for students and Vice President for Student Affairs James Morales already “has programs that he does in order to get student input.”
“I felt like they were both already pretty accessible,” Olsen said.
3. Increase alumni-student relationships through mentoring and job shadowing.
– Not accomplished –
“I found out, after doing some research, that there were already a lot of things being done,” said Olsen, “so I left it to (the Student Alumni Association) because that’s their bread and butter.” This left the goal unaccomplished by Olsen.
4. Create a website centralizing all involvement and research opportunities for students.
– In the works –
Olsen said USUSA’s public relations and marketing director Madison Maners was already working on updating the organization’s website and finding a centralized way to get people involved was “already a part of it.” In lieu of creating an entirely new website, Olsen credits Maners with working to improve accessibility of the site. He was unable to incorporate research opportunities into the redesign of the website after realizing that, “most of the professors doing research don’t want to open it up to anybody and would rather pick students from their classes.” This goal was classified as “in the works” because Olsen made strides toward accomplishing it, but didn’t actually create a separate “centralized website.”
Post-Election Initiatives:
1. Implement a mental health awareness campaign at USU and improve existing resources for students to get help with mental health issues.
– Accomplished –
Olsen worked with Graduate Studies Senator Ty Aller to improve the “Mental Health is No Joke” awareness week. Through his involvement in the Utah Student Association, Olsen was able to get a mental health awareness initiative implemented by student government officers across the state. He also worked with Morales on researching ways to improve USU’s Counseling and Psychological Services center.
2. Restructure Capital and Support.
– In the works –
Olsen is currently working on making improvements to the Capital and Support system, which allows organizations on campus to apply for additional funding when needed. “We’re reforming that because it doesn’t work really well,” Olsen said.
3. Codify USUSA legislation to make it more accessible and up-to-date.
– In the works –
Olsen said he is also currently working on codifying some of USUSA’s legislation to make it more accessible and up-to-date.
4. Work to make the 911 Cellular app available to students.
– In the works –
Olsen said he is working to bring the 911 Cellular app, which helps police pinpoint a student’s exact location in times of emergency, to Utah State’s campus. He plans to pass the initiative on to Waddoups, as it was part of her presidential campaign platform this year.
Thomas Buttars
Executive VP
Pre-Election Goals:
1. “Greater transparency of student fees.”
– Accomplished –
Buttars allowed students to apply to serve as students-at-large on the fee board and opened all fee board meetings to the public.
2. Work with and be an advocate for the Academic Senate.
– Not applicable –
This does not qualify as a goal since it is part of Buttars’ charter as Executive VP.
3. Create a “welcoming atmosphere” within and around USUSA.
– Accomplished –
USUSA college senators agreed that Buttars created a welcoming culture around USUSA and encouraged them to do the same. They also said Buttars united the Academic Senate and encouraged senators to collaborate.
4. Improve USU’s instructor evaluation platform.
– Not accomplished –
Buttars said he realized after taking office and sitting on the Faculty Evaluation Committee that the university was already “deeply invested” in the IDEA course survey program and that “getting rid of that was not going to happen.”
Post-Election Initiatives:
1. Implement an adviser evaluation program.
– Accomplished –
Buttars built on the framework for an adviser evaluation developed by his predecessor to implement an evaluation program for advisers.
Ashley Waddoups
Student Advocate VP
Pre-Election Goals:
1. Increase transparency with respect to tuition and student fees.
– Accomplished –
Waddoups created a tuition and fees awareness campaign with yard signs around campus that explained different fees. She hopes to incorporate a page on the USUSA website detailing how tuition and student fees are used. Although some elements of the initiative are still in the works, Waddoups did manage to increase transparency and thus accomplish her goal.
2. Improve response time to myVoice inquiries.
– Accomplished –
While Waddoups admitted it was hard to quantify results for this initiative, she felt that there had been “really good” officer follow-up this year.
“I’ve tried to promote a culture through presentations and workshops with the officers that we really owe it to these students to respond to them, and respond to them in a timely manner,” Waddoups said. “It’s something we do frequently.”
3. Increase political activism through the Government Relations Council (GRC).
– Accomplished –
Waddoups and the GRC lobbied to secure $38 million “to go toward our science building” and $1.2 million for “market demand programs and the graduate initiative at USU.” The council also held two voter registration drives and put on a political fair with the goal of helping students better understand how politics affects their lives.
4. Connect USU students to the Capitol
– Not accomplished –
Waddoups said she realized after taking office that this goal wasn’t feasible. Her initial plan was to ask students to write letters to legislators, which would then be hand-delivered by herself and the GRC. After going through the process of lobbying this year, Waddoups said she realized that not only would delivering letters to individual representatives have been “madness,” but that, “with the degree of how passive students are, we probably would spend a lot of time volunteering and not get much input.”
Post-Election Initiatives:
1. Create greater awareness of sexual and domestic violence issues through social activism initiatives.
– Accomplished –
Waddoups helped organize and put on the “Heroes, not Victims” sexual assault discussion panel. She said she plans to help sponsor a screening of “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses.
Sawyer Hemsley
Student Events VP
Pre-Election Goals:
1. Create opportunities for students to “feel more involved” with planning and executing activities.
– Accomplished –
Hemsley created three committees of 10 students each to help plan and promote activities. He created the USU Student Events Facebook page, where students can go to learn about events and give feedback. Hemsley was also able to take over the Blue Crew, an organization formerly housed within the admissions office, which was placed in charge of monitoring social media feedback from students.
2. Incorporate new activities throughout the semester – “amp up” existing activities and increase student attendance.
– Accomplished –
Hemsley added, among others, two events he hopes will become traditions: Dancing with the Aggie Stars and Aggie Voice. He also made changes to Poetry and a Beverage – moving the event to a larger venue and allowing online registration for participants – which increased attendance.
3. Emphasize and focus on USU traditions and help students gain a better understanding of their importance.
– In the works –
Hemsley said the idea behind this goal was to “go back to the core values… or reasons why we have those events,” which is hard to quantify. Specifically, he attempted to bring the Sweater Swap back to its roots by requiring students to bring another Utah college or university’s sweater for exchange rather than just any sweater. However, Hemsley admitted that the office could have done more to accomplish the goal.
4. Work with public relations and marketing directors to help students be aware of each program or activity held on campus.
– Not applicable –
This does not qualify as a goal since it is part of Hemsley’s charter as Student Events VP.
5. “Lead with kindness … so volunteers can continue having the desire to help … and better the university.”
– In the works –
This goal was classified as “in the works” because it is specific to Hemsley’s leadership and couldn’t officially be considered “accomplished” until after he leaves office.
Post-Election Initiatives:
1. Increase social media presence of the Student Events office
– Accomplished –
Hemsley took over the Blue Crew and put its members in charge of social media outreach for the Student Events office. A Snapchat account was created which now has over 1,000 followers. Following of the Blue Crew Instagram account, according to Hemsley, increased from 700 to more than 2,000.
2. Change the name of the Programming office/Programming VP titles to “Student Events office/Student Events VP”
– Accomplished –
Thomas Rogers
Athletics and Campus Recreation VP
1. Help grow recent alumni relationships with USU.
– Not accomplished –
Rogers said he was able to work with the SAA on existing events for recent alumni, but didn’t take on any initiatives of his own toward accomplishing this goal.
2. Create a campus recreation committee.
– Not accomplished –
Upon taking office, Rogers realized that a committee similar to the one he wanted to create already existed, so there was no point in creating a new one. While Rogers said he was able to make improvements to the existing policy board, the original goal was left unaccomplished since he didn’t actually form a new committee.
3. Increase marketing on campus with signs, fliers, pep rallies, etc.
– In the works –
Rogers partly accomplished this goal by organizing a number of pep rallies throughout the year and forming a partnership with campus dining services to insure that, from now on, a pep rally will be held “before the first home game” every year. However, Rogers said he could still have done more marketing and would be passing that task on to his successor.
4. Help market the new Aggie Recreation Center (ARC).
– Not accomplished –
According to Rogers, the university already had a marketing plan in place for the ARC. Rogers met with the committee in charge of carrying out that plan to help work on improvements – such as the addition of clocks throughout the building – but was not directly involved in marketing.
5. Bridge the gap between USU’s NCAA athletes and the student body.
– Accomplished –
Rogers and the HURD Committee held a series of activities in the Taggart Student Center that encouraged interaction between students and athletes.
Post-Election Initiatives:
1. Increase social media and marketing for HURD Committee events.
– In the works –
Rogers plans to pass on his office’s social media campaign to his successor. Though he worked to make athletic events and the HURD more present in social media this year, the success of his efforts was hard to quantify.
2. Increase opportunities for student involvement in Athletics activities.
– Accomplished –
Rogers implemented the HURD Rewards program, “Win It Wednesday,” “Find It Friday” and other events including pep rallies.
Luis Armenta
Organization and Campus Diversity VP
Pre-Election Goals:
1. Provide clubs with “more opportunities to shine.”
– Not accomplished –
According to Armenta, this goal was based on a desire to make clubs “more visible.” A “Corndogs and Clubs” event was put on as a sort of activities fair, but aside from that Armenta didn’t make any significant efforts to accomplish this relatively unspecific goal.
2. “Provide students better networking opportunities.”
– Not accomplished –
Armenta said he planned to hold social events at the beginning and end of the year to encourage the leaders of clubs and diversity organizations to mingle and, in theory, network. However, considering how far apart the events were spaced it was hard to conclude that this goal was accomplished in any significant way.
3. “Work with the Canvas system” to “help students know about clubs.”
– Not accomplished –
Armenta admitted he was uninformed in making this goal, especially considering that the Canvas system has very little, if anything, to do with providing information about clubs. Due to the phrasing Armenta used, the goal cannot be considered accomplished.
4. “Help clubs organize to be more productive and efficient.”
– Not accomplished –
While Armenta’s creation of three club director positions is designed to make the accomplishment of this goal more realistic, it cannot be considered helping clubs organize since the director positions are housed within his office and promote organization there more so than in individual clubs.
Post-Election Initiatives:
1. Improve the legislative infrastructure for clubs and diversity organizations.
– Accomplished –
Armenta created three new club director positions and a diversity cabinet to help promote clubs and diversity organizations on campus and make it easier for those organizations to work together.
2. Improve web resources for on-campus clubs and organizations.
– In the works –
According to Armenta, work is being done on the current website’s “My Communities” portal “to make it more user-friendly for clubs.”
Leah Calder
Service VP
Pre-Election Goals:
1. Physically make the Service Center more appealing.
– Accomplished –
Calder got the walls in the service center painted, cleaned and organized storage in the office and had sliding glass doors installed as a new entrance.
2. Develop “strong” community partnerships.
– Accomplished –
Calder contracted partnerships with 16 different service organizations to work with the USU Service Center regularly.
3. Create a more streamlined process for students to get involved.
– Accomplished –
According to Calder, the Service Center’s website was “completely revamped” to include a calendar organizing service opportunities and a drop-down application menu for students to “get involved,” among other improvements.
4. Actively work to educate groups on campus about service opportunities.
– Accomplished –
Calder selected four Issue Area Coordinators to take responsibility for a specific category of service and reach out to organizations on campus who might be interested in service projects specific to that category. Calder said the service center also collaborated “more than ever before” with other USUSA programs as well as the SAA and “the Greeks.”
5. Increase on-campus involvement of the Service Center.
– In the works –
Calder said she felt this goal was part of the ongoing process of connecting with individual students and groups on campus but that, “we’re not finished yet.”
Calder did not undertake any significant post-election initiatives.
– ac.roberts95@gmail.com
@alyssarbrts