Distance VP proposes regional student council
Discussions regarding the creation of an effective model for governing regional and distance student bodies have culminated in a proposal to the ASUSU Executive Council that outlines changes in the current student government method.
Justin Watkins, vice president for Regional Campus and Distance Education, proposed the outline Dec. 6, saying USU policies are sometimes difficult to apply to regional campuses.
“There is no executive council for regional campuses — it’s up here,” Watkins said. “None of the regional campuses vote on the student president just because it’s not practical. When you look at ASUSU, there’s a good chunk of students that are not under ASUSU’s jurisdiction.”
The amendment will group the regional campuses into four regions with an executive council, Watkins said. He said the proposed RCDE Executive Council will work in conjunction with the ASUSU Executive Council.
“We’re discussing how to divide the regional campuses because we want to build an executive council,” Watkins said. “Some of these campuses might drown out the other ones.”
The size of the regional campuses is a central factor in figuring how to group them, Watkins said. The Nephi campus has about 20 people, while the Tooele campus has about 1,000.
He said larger campuses may overshadow smaller campuses if grouped under the same council and their voices may not be heard. Watkins said he is looking for a way to give all campuses a voice in student government.
According to USU Admissions data from fall 2011, there are 16,472 students enrolled at Logan campus and 12,109 students at all regional campuses.
“There are actually more graduate students off Logan campus than there are up here,” Watkins said.
Kirsten Frank, ASUSU executive vice president, said she’s been working with regional campuses and Watkins to sponsor the RCDE bill next semester.
“I think the principal purpose of it, honestly, is the exact same principal purpose that we have in student government of having the control that we do,” Frank said. “There’s a reason that our advisers advise us and don’t necessarily make our decisions, and that’s unique to Utah State University.”
Frank said she has been to other schools’ student government functions and said their advisers tend to run things, rather than letting the student government have control.
“Regional campuses, being such a huge part of our campus, shouldn’t be an exception to that rule,” Frank said. “What Justin is trying to do seems like it’s a very good measure to put the power back into the hands of the students.”
Frank said she met with leaders at regional campuses who would love the leadership opportunities enjoyed by the Logan campus.
Watkins said the school’s constitution was built for the main campus and with the regional campuses growing, changes should be made.
“I’m trying to take what James Morales is doing and look 20 years into the future. I’m trying to get that kind of vision going on,” Watkins said, “I’m trying to do an amendment with the constitution so that in the future it’s not that big of a hassle to make changes. There may come a time where there are 12,000 students in Brigham City. I’m trying to keep in mind expansion and being able to change it in the future as much as possible.”
Watkins said he’s trying to create more transparency between the campuses so things done Logan are the same regionally. He said it should also give regional students more of a voice.
ASUSU President Erik Mikkelsen said Watkins is setting a framework on the student side of what is going on at the administrative level. He said this structure should help regional students have a voice instead of relying on the voice of the Logan campus.
“The reality of things is our campus — our Logan campus — has reached its capacity for the most part,” Mikkelsen said. “In talking with president Albrecht, he feels and he sees that all of our future expansion is going be at the regional campus level. Those campuses have tons of room to expand and that will really promote our mission of providing access to higher education across the state of Utah.”
“I think it’s going to prove to be really successful and give those students at the regional campuses a lot more opportunities to meet the needs that they have,” Mikkelsen said, “because our needs here are so much different than their needs there.”
Mikkelsen said most students enrolled at Logan campus are traditional single students. He said many of the regional students are non-traditional students who are married and have jobs and children along with school, so their needs are different.
“Maybe they don’t need a whole bunch of big dance parties, or a whole bunch of events to go to,” Mikkelsen said, “because they wouldn’t be able to go anyways, even if their student fees paid for those events.”
According to Watkins, when College of Eastern Utah joined USU and became USU Eastern, a contract was signed stating USU Eastern is allowed to keep its own student government, mascot and tuition. Because of this, he said proposed changes would not affect USU Eastern.
Because some students attend both main campus and a regional campus, Watkins said, those students’ tuition and fees would be split between the two campuses, with the school they attend most receiving more of the tuition, based on the amount of credits taken.
Watkins said his idea for regional campuses started as a regional campus constitution before evolving into what it is now.
“I was thinking of doing a regional campus constitution, but I didn’t want to split the school,” Watkins said. “I don’t want to do that. I want to split the jurisdictions of the student body.”
Watkins said his plan will be presented to the Executive Council as an amendment to the constitution during its first meeting of spring semester.
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu
– amber.murdoch@aggiemail.usu.edu