ASUSU discusses altering waitlist policy
The Student Advisory Council asked that members of the ASUSU Executive Council give their opinions on possible changes to class registration waitlists during Tuesday’s ASUSU meeting.
ASUSU President Erik Mikkelsen presented the order of business to members of the council.
“There’s two options,” Mikkelsen said. “The waitlist could end just before classes start, and teachers could have full reign over who they let in and who they don’t let in. Or the waitlist could end the week after classes start.”
Members of the council gave differing opinions.
Frank said she was in favor of giving teachers more autonomy. ASUSU Administrative Assistant Jordan Hunt said he also wants professors to have control who is allowed in their classes.
Academic Senate President Tanner Wright said he thinks the waitlist should continue to end the week after classes start.
“I don’t see that there’s any problem the way that it is,” Wright said. “There’s no reason to fix something that isn’t broken.”
He said upperclassmen who need a class for a major already have priority with the current program.
Cami Jones, graduate studies vice president, said the Student Advisory Committee discussed having different waitlist policies for various class sections. One section, she said, could have a waitlist for majors while another section could be reserved for non-majors who wish to take the class. The idea is still in the development process, she said.
The Education First signature drive that was introduced to the council last week was discussed again and minor changes were made. The program will ask students to sign a survey that will be presented to state legislators in hopes of instilling the importance that higher educations are to students. This will hopefully decrease or eliminate the possibility of budget cuts this year, Mikkelsen said.
“Basically, the legislature doesn’t quite see the value of higher education, or they see the value but they see that it can be funded in other ways with our tuition,” Mikkelsen said. “But every time budgets are cut, tuition gets hiked, which is not good for students and it really eliminates opportunities, especially at Utah State because we’re a land-grant institution, and we’re all about providing education for those who usually wouldn’t be able to provide it for themselves.”
The survey states Utah higher education funding has been cut by 14 percent since 2008, which means the budget has been cut by $106 million. It also states tuition has more than doubled in the past decade.
“This is a great opportunity for every student to really start to make a difference at the state level for higher education,” Mikkelsen said. “We’re hoping, if this goes well, to get a zero percent budget cut, which would be wonderful because that hasn’t happened for eight years.”
ASUSU Executive Vice President Kirsten Frank said additional day prizes will be given to organizations or clubs that collect the most signatures in addition to the $300 prize. The signatures must be collected by Nov. 3, she said.
On Friday Oct. 28 the group with the most recorded signatures will win a pizza party. On Tuesday, Nov. 1 the leading group will also win a pizza party, though if the same group is leading, the second place group will win the party.
Organizers of Education First gave USU a goal of 2,764 signatures, Frank said, and the goal is based off USU’s total enrollment.
Frank said she wants the members of the executive council to give a stack of surveys to each member of their council and have them hand out surveys in one of their classes. Frank said this will be how they plan on collecting signatures to compete with each other, and other Utah schools. Currently, Salt Lake Community College has 1,500 signatures, Mikkelsen said.
Group leaders from the various organizations can post the number of signatures they have collected to the Facebook page, Frank said. This is how they plan on keeping track of all the groups’ numbers.
Students will have the option to sign the survey online, Frank said. Frank said she hopes to contact students via email urging them to sign.
“Even if this signature drive makes a little tiny difference, it will literally mean millions of dollars for this university,” Frank said.
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu