Best Student Government
Private Colleges & Universities

Winner: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Runner-Up: University of Miami

Winner
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Student Government Association is taking to the air—waves, that is. This aviation school sports a top Student Government team that consistently goes to bat for students, funds an award-winning campus newspaper, The Avion, and recently launched a campus radio station, WERU 97.3 FM. The station is considered “a vehicle through which interested students can find an outlet to express themselves,” says SGA President Matthew Collier, who was a Florida Leader  “Student of the Year” finalist last year.

ERAU’s SGA provides many ongoing services to help students succeed and continually revamps its programs. SGA’s top program continues to be SafeRide, giving students a free ride home after a night of partying. Last year, SGA developed Task Force One, an executive council for freshmen to get involved with SGA. They meet directly with Collier to advise him on issues and provide planning, ideas, and support. “This freshman council is a fantastic way for SGA to recruit manpower, brainpower, creativity, [and] ingenuity,” Collier says. SGA’s also looking to sponsor spring athletic events.

To keep ERAU’s yearbook alive, SGA is outsourcing most functions of production to an outside company such as financing, marketing, and distribution, “leaving the students to do what they do best—develop content,” Collier says.

SGA also is vying for supervision of the campus bookstore with the intent “to deliver lower costs to the student by reducing profit margins [and] to also diversify SGA revenue streams so as to provide more flexibility with respect to finances,” Collier says, such as helping Touch-N-Go Productions secure big-name acts or putting money toward building a “true student union.”

Furthermore, SGA developed a year-long strategic plan and also submitted a progress report to ERAU’s board of trustees. SGA defined its mission statement—a key to any successful organization—along with a vision statement, stating a desire to become a “model Student Government.” They’ve certainly met that goal, as evidenced by their record as a Florida Leader  “Best SG” finalist five of the last six years and winner last year.

ERAU’s SGA considers its strengths to be teamwork, communication, and respect by the administration. Part of that communication thrust is adding two new positions—Director of Internal Affairs Ashley Moore and Director of External Affairs Michael Vacirca. Moore maintains “fluid communication” within SGA and delivers that to the campus community. Vacirca oversees the SGA Web site and serves as liaison to the American Student Government Association (launched March 2004 by Florida Leader’s publisher), where as a founding member it maintains an updated SG profile available to members nationwide.

SGA’s Web site was revamped last year, sporting a clean, slick look. However, the only meeting agendas and minutes available are those from executive and student finance boards—the most recent being from November! Other listings also are outdated and contact info is sparse. But important documents are listed, services are detailed, and even a SafeRide map is available. It’s clearly a work in progress, though in 2005 there’s no excuse for a lacking Web site. ERAU’s SGA should consider designing their site as a student portal that not only showcases SGA but also provides links to student services, events, and news.

Voter turnout is commendable, though not as high as the 33 percent attained last year. To move back toward SGA’s goal of a 50 percent turnout, SGA Vice President Matthew Tarnowski says that they have “identified targeted areas of improvement.” SGA uses a Web-based education tool called Blackboard to handle online voting.

Beyond campus, ERAU continues to serve as co-chair with Flagler College on a statewide lobbying alliance for private colleges. SGA helped spearhead that alliance last year where none had existed before. These off-campus efforts combined with continually changing on-campus campaigns prove that this SGA’s top priority is to help their fellow students soar like Eagles.

Contact SGA at 386-226-6045 or sgapres@erau.edu or visit http://sga.db.erau.edu.

Runner-Up
University of Miami
These Hurricanes, and not the nasty ones of last summer, blew in the tunes at the University of Miami, so there’s no more singin’ the blues on this tropical campus. Student Government brought Napster to UM, giving students access to more than 700,000 songs. Now these lucky Canes can breathe easy while enjoying their favorite music.

“When we first started the initiative, the administration was obviously pessimistic about the whole program,” says SG President Vance Aloupis. “Over 100 e-mails were sent to random students at both Penn State and the University of Rochester to see how their student body was responding to the new Napster program; luckily all of the responses were positive and insightful.” As one of six schools to offer this service to students, it’s no surprise that the school and SG have been featured in the national press and local media.

UM also has a SafeRide program and is completing a book-swap program called Cane Exchange, which allows students to buy or sell items from one another—and not just books.

SG has reworked its Web site, though it’s still lacking in both design and content. By launching an online voting system via its own site, SG could boost its already high voter turnout percentage of 20 percent to new levels. In the process, this would ultimately facilitate more student exposure to SG news and resources. To SG’s credit, contact info at the existing site seems to be more available than before, and meeting minutes are fairly up to date, though they look more like agendas than recorded discussions.

Like their Web site, UM’s SG is a work in progress that continues to excel in working with the administration to enhance student life. And that success starts with top officers—SG Vice President Minal Ahson was a Florida Leader  “Student of the Year” finalist last year. Beware Florida SGs: The gale warnings are out at this South Florida campus!

Contact SG at sgpresident@miami.edu or visit www.miami.edu/studorgs/sg.

Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved