ASUCC's largest project comes to a close
Scholarships, student activities and athletics earned the most votes in this year’s student interest survey on how the $1 per credit student activity fees should be spent; $110,000 has accumulated in the fund to date.
“[I am] pleasantly surprised with the results,” Melissa Osborne the ASUCC president remarked. “We’ve been working on accruing all the necessary figures for some time now, and to finally have all our hard work come to fruition is really great. Support from students and faculty has also been great.”
The survey and assessment required several months of data collection. Due to the diversity on campus, developing a program to aid as many students as possible was difficult and required considerable research, Osborne explained.
Research started the second week of fall term, 2009, and it took the rest of the term for ASUCC officers to assess which items should go onto the survey. Some of the suggestions they received included a miniature train that ran the length of campus for student travel and a giant, glowing snowman to occupy the center of campus. In the end, the top fourteen most practical were placed on the ballot with the fifteenth slot being a fill in.
“The top rated ideas were included in the student interest survey [as voting options] as well as programs that have been needed on campus for some time such as a program that helps supply students with school materials,” Osborne said.
The student government sought to collect at the fewest 500 surveys and received 637 complete ones much to their excitement, said Osborne.
“The results are surprising, but the one that doesn’t surprise me, though, is the scholarship,” Osborne said. “Students appreciate any resource that assists with school, so creating a scholarship idea received considerable support.” Because the scholarship program received the highest percentage of votes, ASUCC is currently working on developing the program. The scholarship will only contain a GPA requirement, so anyone who meets the minimum grade point average can apply regardless of gender, age, martial status or major.
The student activity account, which will fund not only this scholarship but any other project resulting from the survey, accumulated its surplus over the last three years. The amount vacillates every term partially based on enrollment. “Basically, the fee is there to assist students,” Osborne said. “But the fund does little to assist students if it is not utilized.”
Osborne first noticed how large the fund had grown when she was doing preliminary research to start Project C.A.N.S., the new ASUCC program targeted at supplying food for students.
Currently, student activity fee dollars go towards U-Tran, volleyball and the renewal of baseball or softball. About 25 percent, or $15,000, goes to support a contract with U-Tran which helps to reduce bus rates for UCC students. Up to 25 percent goes to volleyball, and any funds not used by the program are cycled back into the fund. The remaining 50 percent has been allocated to bringing soft ball or baseball to UCC as an intercollegiate sport, according to Osborne.
Policy 7.10 SAF permits ASUCC to reassess funds in order to best serve students.
Student government has never tackled a project of this size or complexity, said Osborne. “We learned a lot from this project,” Osborne continued. “This process will serve as our model for future ventures.”
The endeavor laid the foundation for future projects of this size and gave the members of ASUCC experience in dealing with research on a large scale.
“One of the most time consuming parts of the whole project was recording all the results and error checking—we recorded everything three times,” Osborne explained. “We had several people check the ballots, too. We worked very hard on recording the information and recorded all data several times, and this is why it took so long.”
Osborne explained her reason for the extra caution. “[I want ASUCC] to really, really represent students,” Osborne said. She also wanted ASUCC to find out what students need before they come to ASUCC for assistance. In fact, Osborne’s first question as ASUCC president was “I have only a year, so what can I do to help?”
Osborne said the previous ASUCC president, Jeff Robin, had begun to organize student government towards a more proactive position in the campus community. “Jeff changed the campus image of ASUCC,” Osborne said. She went on to explain that Robin was a great inspiration to her.
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