ASUSU officers report on their 2012-13 duties
Christian Thrapp
ASUSU president
Platform: Stand for the students’ voice, ensure more opportunities for student involvement and create a better university experience while being fiscally responsible.
Thrapp: “In my own personal view I found that my platform was originally fairly broad. However, I did my best to do all that I said I would. To my best effort, I went out to talk to students to get their points of view on different matters facing the university and its students.
“I created a forum called ‘Executive Facetime’ to allow another opportunity for students to get their voice out there. But the key to all of this is the officers of ASUSU. They are really the ones that helped fulfill my platform goals. They were incredible this year. Yet with the budget effects we knew we were going to see next year, they made sure they were responsible with the students’ money. They worked incredibly hard with the fee board to ensure that only necessary fees were increased.
“The most difficult obstacle to overcome was time. I felt as though I had such limited time to do everything that I wanted to do. Luckily, Doug Fiefia will be able to continue with what has been started, as I had the chance to.”
Ben Wilson
Executive vice president
Platform: Keep tuition low and increase internship opportunities for all students.
Wilson: “I’m very happy with the way things went in terms of tuition and fees. Fees for next year were raised by less than $1. When you take inflation into account, that’s basically a slight decrease in fees. Additionally, Tier 2 tuition is not being raised next year and we owe President Albrecht and his administration a big thanks for that. Tier 1 tuition is going to see a bump next year. Obviously I wish there was more we could have done about that, but I think the Government Relations Council did an admirable job representing student concerns at the capitol.
“One of the things I’m most proud of from my tenure was the job we did with voter registration. The GRC and President’s Cabinet really pulled through and we were able to register more students than any other institution in the state, and more than any other year on record here at USU. All-in-all, I think the year was a big success.”
Christian Orr
Student Advocate vice president
Platform: Provide platforms for students to address and improve their college experience, collaborating with academic senators and faculty, execution of the Truth in Student Fees Forum as legislated in 2004, promote the Brutally Honest Panel, create a Student Voice Think-Tank and use online videos and website resources to promote student services, proposed fees and advocate student concerns.
Orr: “I feel that I have accomplished all of my goals in office with some adaptations as I came to understand the scope and needs of student body. We held the Brutally Honest Forum in fall semester and got some good feedback from students. Hopefully that will be a recurring event each year that students can look forward to as they address their college experiences.
“In terms of the Truth In Student Fees Forum, I went a different route than originally anticipated. The purpose of the forum is to let students know where their fees go and tell them about increases that have been passed for the year. This year the fee board legislated one of the smallest fee increases in decades. So small, in fact, that the possibility of turnout for such an non-dramatically-charged change would be small. I decided to go a more long lasting infrastructure to educate students in fees.
“Throughout the year I have noticed that a significant number of students don’t really know where they are going – the problem was not resources, but access and education. Working closely with the A-Team, I have collected new university tuition and fee tables, summaries of each fee and the sources to access them. We are putting this consolidated information into the new student planners for SOAR.”
Karson Kalian
Athletics vice president
Platform: Build up support and excitement in all aspects of USU Athletics and campus recreation, women’s club, and intramural sports included and enforce the HURD as a national name, build support for all athletic events, oversee the creation of Campus Rec Student Policy Board to run and coordinate use of Fields and Rec Center.
Kalian: “With the white-out, we were able to get the entire stadium on their feet for Homecoming and we haven’t heard one negative word about it. I would have liked to work more with the Downtown Alliance to get more USU promos throughout the entire town but did not get there.
“Advertising for women’s soccer and volleyball was increased compared to previous years and support did improve from that.
“My first week in office, this (policy) board was created. It met several times throughout the year and created the policy for the Aggie Legacy Fields. The policy board will now meet two to four times a year to discuss the policy and also create a new one for the Recreation Center as the building plans are also completed.
“At the beginning of the summer with some help for some trusty advisors, we rebranded the HURD not as an exclusive group but a more all-inclusive group. We got rid of the membership fee and some of the benefits but decided that everyone should get access to limited edition items and other benefits. Some of the reasons behind this was that the HURD was seen as a ‘free-food’ club and also we did not want to take advantage of the freshman anymore.
“We established the HURD as the entire student section or student body and ga
ve everyone access. We still bring in revenue from apparel sales as well as other contracts with various university entities. This has been huge for us and we look forward to all improvements throughout the coming years.”
Mariana Ochoa
Diversity vice president
Platform: Expand diversity by embracing, enhancing and experiencing the endless opportunities available to students at USU, work toward maximizing communication between clubs and organizations to make them more efficient and available to students.
Ochoa: “One of the things I did to accomplish my platform was to always inform clubs and organizations about events and activities going on around campus. That way, they could support each other and have a better turn out. The best way to communicate was through email. I made sure to check the diversity email account once a day, but still, that was a challenge trying to keep up with them.
“I feel like we did a pretty good job this year at informing clubs about the resources available to them. We really pushed for a better understanding of the process this year and in the end we had a lot more clubs apply for funding than we’ve had in previous years.
“Overall, it was a very successful year for clubs and organizations and I wish every single one of them success in the years to come. I am truly honored that I had the opportunity to serve them this year.”
Jordan Carl Hunt
Academic Senate president
Platform: Promote involvement and develop opportunities for student success in and out of the classroom, voice student opinion about changes to summer semester, evaluate and report student feedback about IDEA Course Evaluations, promote the visibility of the ASUSU Academic Senate and explore the creation of a Leadership minor.
Hunt: “I worked extensively with the Faculty Senate’s Faculty Evaluation Committee to review and analyze the IDEA Course Evaluation system. The Senate is more effective in terms of providing scholarships to returning freshman, travel grants to undergraduate researchers and improving eight classrooms. While these efforts may not be more visible, they are better now than they were a year ago.
“Once I was in office, I found that creating a leadership minor was not an effective use of my time and I spent that time and energy towards other goals.
“It is always difficult to accomplish the many ideas that we have in such a short amount of time. However, we are lucky to have the support of administration and students to be able to make changes where possible. Each council makes incremental steps that improve our student life.”
Jeremy Nef
Service vice president
Platform: Maximize the quality of service by improving conditions, uniting organizations, and empowering students, bring the Val R. Christensen Service Center up to date in comparison to other universities, help students more easily access and take advantage of service opportunities on campus and in the community and unite the efforts of all campus service clubs, programs and organizations.
Nef: “My greatest accomplishment was the creation of the Campus Service Steering Committee, which I believe was a vehicle in helping me to accomplish my main three goals. This organization met once a month to combine resources and expand the impact of service rendered on USU’s campus. This organization also relayed service opportunities back to their organizations in order to make service more accessible.
“My vision to bring the Val R. Christensen Service Center up to date with other universities hinges largely on creating more staffing in the service center. Simply put, the service center is incredibly understaffed when compared with other service centers across the state. Until service is higher priority for upper administration, there will never be sufficient funds to create more positions in the Service Center.”
Chaise Warr
Programming vice president
Platform: Enrich each student’s experience at USU by providing them opportunities to be actively involved and to have their opinions heard, increase student involvement, provide leadership opportunities for all those who have a desire to be involved in school programming, keep costs low for students to attend programs by motoring budgets, implement new and exciting ideas while still preserving the programs we love and provide programs that attract a broad spectrum of the student population.
Warr: “We have stayed true to traditions that Aggies hold dear while bring new programs to USU. We have provided students with a broad variety of programs and activities. We have also seen many traditional events grow bigger than ever.”
– Compiled by Paul Christiansen