ASUSU addresses compact planning
Staying in line with administrators of Utah State University, the Associated Students of USU has taken upon itself the university’s seven compact planning initiatives, designed to enhance the university as a whole.
The legislative body of ASUSU is using their council and committees to “support and assist the university in these seven things,” Tiffany Evans, director of student activities said.
“These are things that will directly benefit the lives of students and will benefit the university long-term. I think it’s what student government should be doing,” Evans said. “It’s very prudent of our student leaders. I think it’s very proactive of student leaders to do everything they can do to support and initiate programs that will benefit an institution as a whole.”
Student advocate Steve Kindred took enhancing diversity at USU as his initiative.
“What we want to do is make international students feel like they have a place on campus and on the third floor of the Taggart Student Center. We want to make them feel at home,” Kindred said.
He said they are still in the very early stages of planning how to accomplish this goal, but he will be working with International Executive Student Council President Fahima Afroze to increase international student involvement.
Erica Thomas, ASUSU graduate studies vice president, is working on “infusing new energy into graduate education on campus.”
Thomas said one thing she would like to see happen is to have graduate students go to various colleges to recruit undergraduate students to come to USU for graduate school.
“We really do have a great graduate education program here and we need to publicize that,” Thomas said.
She said she and her committee are working on programs “so the university looks a lot more exciting to come to.”
Celestial Starr Bybee, ASUSU executive vice president, and Rachel von Niederhausern, administrative assistant, will be working on enhancing the recruitment and public relations end of the university.
“We are hoping to come to some resolution where marketing and recruiting can work together to have similar advertising,” Bybee said.
Bybee said she is currently “going over what recruitment is right now and how public relations can help better that.”
Bybee said the university needs a better retention rate and she feels that if the recruiting office and public relations work together, the two would create “a lot of synergy.”
Bybee and von Niederhausern will be working with these two offices to write a resolution suggesting ways in which recruitment and public relations can work together to effectively recruit and retain “students who are going to stay and graduate. Students with high grades who will be successful. [People who are] going to enhance the credibility of the university,” Bybee said.
Bybee said she would like to eventually see students on scholarship who will specifically work on recruiting students who are likely to graduate to the university.
ASUSU President Steve Palmer is working with Academic Vice President Andy Haws on retention of students at Utah State.
Palmer said he would like to “create a new group that’s on scholarship that will work on retention.”
This would be a renewable scholarship which would be available to all students, Palmer said. Palmer and Haws are currently working with Vice President for Research Joyce Kinkead conducting preliminary research before they can write a resolution on the initiative. Palmer said he hopes to have the resolution written before Thanksgiving.
Tad Thornton, extension vice president of ASUSU, is working on improving the extension general laws. Thornton has three main goals he wants to accomplish to “put some validity” behind the general laws.
Thornton’s first objective is to set up charters for each of his extension sites. He said he hopes to build “a stronger unity of student government” specific for each extension site.
Secondly, Thornton would like to establish a budget for each of USU’s extension student governments to “address the specific needs of students in their area.”
Thornton’s final objective is to plan for the future.
“Extension is the fastest growing area in our university, I would like to see student government grow with it,” Thornton said.