Best Student Government (Public Universities)

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Best Student Government (Public Universities)
     The University of North Florida’s Student Government swooped down on their fellow Ospreys’ biggest campus dilemmas. By building school spirit, working with administrators and the community, and trying to get a new student center built, President Ann Duskin’s administration clawed its way from 2000 runner-up position to become the best public university Student Government.
     Stretching their $100,000 portion of the $2.1 million dollar budget allows the Duskin administration to bring programs like the "Bus-and-Barbecue" event to the Jacksonville campus. This event made getting involved absolutely effortless for the student body. The SG provided student-spectators with free food and bused attendants to the basketball game against their home-town rivals, Jacksonville University.
     Not only is the UNF SG using its scarce resources on well-received projects, but its also making sure to save money. "We created a programming board. We thought it would be good to collaborate with other groups, so we didn't duplicate events and waste funds," Duskin says. "I also think it's good for more people to be involved, so more people can have ownership of projects." SG also hopes to "wean" student activity fee accounts over the next five years to save money.
     UNF’s SG is beating its wings for Osprey sports teams, trying to get attention and build spirit on campus and with locals. "We have a Community Outreach Committee trying to make the surrounding area a UNF area," says Jordan Schemmel, student senator. "We’re putting spirit items in restaurants."
     Through the "Student Opinion Counts" surveys mailed throughout the year, SG gets feedback on what concerns to tackle. "We used them for extending library hours and getting the atrium study room open 24 hours," Duskin says. "We’re surveying housing right now to help with their problems. We’ve used the surveys to bring in speakers and make changes with food services and the book store. We're really trying to reach out to students to decide where we want to go."
     They’re also implementing policies that benefit the student body that their constituents didn't even asked for, such as separating student media from SG through the new Center for Student Media. "It’s hard to report unbiased when their boss is the Student Government president," she says. "It was actually my idea to do this." The center is home to The Spinnaker paper, Osprey Radio, and Osprey television. "Right now, the radio broadcasts over the internet, so we’re raising money to get them on the radio."
     SG also lends a hand to the Greek community. "We established Greek offices—they didn't have anywhere to meet. We're working on a plan for on-campus housing for Greeks," she says. "We need to make sure the legalities are in order, and decide how we want to deal with the resident assistant situation. This project has a history of failing, so we want to make sure it's done right this time."
     Also, the UNF SG participated in the "Wake-Up Wednesday" statewide voter registration event originally created by the University of South Florida SG. "One day we had a big to-do on campus with music, people from MTV on the green, a woman from Ivote2.com visited, local candidates, and a forum for students to ask questions," Duskin says. Next to USF’s 795 new voters, UNF’s effort produced the best results—beating UF (95 new voters) and UCF (440).
     Schemmel says 636 students registered. "It was a big success," he says. "The events were planned well in advance, so we could get food and T-shirts for the students. This was our biggest return investment."
     Duskin explains that their biggest achievement is their fight to get plans approved for a new student union, set for groundbreaking in 2003. "We decided to tax ourselves, a $2 fee, and we’re securing capital funds. We're getting $1 million matched by a local donor for a new fitness center," Duskin says. "We’re now trying to figure out how we can get it done sooner. We brought it to everyone’s attention what dire need we’re in to give students a place to get involved." She credits their success in getting the ball rolling to simple organization. "We were educated, showed them what needed to be done, and now we're doing it." The SG also makes sure the students being taxed get to benefit from their contributions. "We're making incremental changes now, so they'll see where the money is going almost immediately," she says.
     According to Duskin, SG’s "Secret Shopper" program also is a big hit. "Students are given evaluations and use them when they go to different offices on campus. We reward the offices that are good and draw attention to offices that aren't," she says. "We’re giving out candy bars, and we think we're going to start displaying the good areas names on a placard."
     Another SG issue relates to students’ academic choices and making it easier for them to learn about a course before registering. "We're trying to get an on-line syllabus with opinions from students, so they can find out more about the class before they attend," she says. "If faculty choose not to post their syllabus, that will also say something about the instructor."
     Student Senator Arthur Jackson proudly points to other less visible SG accomplishments, including extended hours for the library, computer lab, and academic resource center, which provides free tutors. "Both the executive and the legislative branches are doing great things," he says. "We’ve delivered on all of our promises. Ann has helped me realize that there’s a solution to every problem."
     "We’ve got a great group of officers," says Doreen Daily, SGA advisor. "Instead of waiting for students to come to them, they reach out. I really respect this group. They’ve shaped up amazingly as far as organization goes. Individually and as a team, they’re wonderful."
     Duskin keeps in touch with university president Anne Hopkins through bi-weekly meetings, and sees the vice president of student affairs Dr. Mauricio Gonzalez once a week.
     Even Spinnaker Editor Josh Stewart speaks highly of the Duskin team. "They have a very ‘open-door’ policy," he says. "Wake Up Wednesday was very successful and practical. I think they are spending their money quite well."
     UNF’s winning SG had a scare when former SG Vice President Lee Bremer got a job offer in his career field and stepped down in February 2001. This could have been a crippling change, but the organization didn’t skip a beat. After Bremer’s departure, Duskin says former Chief of Staff Lindsay Hodges stepped right in and helped SG’s projects keep running smoothly.
Contact (904) 620-2750 or visit www.unf.edu/groups.sga.

     At the University of South Florida in Tampa, Student Government leaders, led by President Tyvi Small and Vice President Tara Klimek, prodded more students to vote and reached out to constituents to hear problems, earning runner-up distinction. "This is one of our best SGs over the past 10 years," says Laurie Woodward, student activities director. "They’re all committed to learning while dong things right."
     The Small administration pushed through a parking survey on all state university system campuses, with the hope of battling parking problems objectively. "We're doing surveys and talking to students trying to figure out how we can best use our resources," Small says. "From comparing our situation to other schools, students can see that we didn't have that big of a parking problem, but more of a convenience problem."
     This SG tries to get to know students on a personal level through "Executive Outreach." "We try to do them bi-weekly, once a month on average," Small says. "We have agencies—I work on SoberRide and we go pick up students if they can't drive, and I just get to talk to them. I'm able to listen to these students concerns and log them. Tara and I also work on SafeTeam. I'll tell them who I am and ask them what they do and don't like about campus, or they'll ask how they can volunteer," he says. "People involved with government say 'if you need anything come to me,' but I think you should go to your constituents."
     Klimek explains another Executive Outreach project. "We volunteer to take any residents on Wednesdays to Super Wal-mart to buy anything they need," Klimek says. "The residents are really excited, because most don't have a car or they have to park on the outskirts of campus."
     The way SG works with its constituents might have something to do with the way the USF administrators try to include them in their decision-making processes. "We have weekly meetings with [USF President Judy Genshaft] or whenever we have a problem we can stop by. We met with her six times last week," Small says. "She also has open forums once a month where students can meet and discuss anything. We also have lunches where we randomly pick 20 students and meet to discuss issues.
     With a $5.1 million budget, SG allocates funds to 120 groups and serves 28,000 students. SG’s creation of the Promotions Task Force almost doubled their event turnout. "It's a bunch of crazy Student Government volunteer people," Small says. "They go to residence halls, chalk the sidewalks, go pass out flyers. They're getting more students pumped up. We have so many students signing up to volunteer now, and that's just by having someone at every event."
     Getting students passionate about events is the task force's main goal, and according to Klimek they're doing just that. "We had a pool party, and we had so many people that we ran out of food in the first hour and drinks in a half hour, and people still stayed until 1 a.m.," she says. "That is the kind of spirit we want to promote."
      Not only is the Small administration working hard to better USF, but it’s also sharing its creative wealth. The group initiated the very successful Wake-up Wednesday voter registration drive for all of SUS schools. "We posted it to FSA and other schools just jumped on," Klimek says. "We registered over 3,100 people!"
     While SG got other schools to jump on the election bandwagon, only the USF group was successful in initiating "R.E.V" (register, educate, and vote). The extension of the registration drive helped students make educated decisions about the politicians. "We went around the residence halls for Residence Hall Round-up," Klimek says. "We went around telling residents that this is the last day to vote, and gave info on the candidates and Student Government. Fifty to 60 additional people got involved because of this."
     The SG also helped other SUS schools by organizing the Government Relations Workshop to learn how to work together on FSA legislative issues. "It's basically to show them how to deal with legislative issues. We need to know how to lobby. It taught them how to do it professionally and get results," Small says. "People aren't going to take us as a joke." While USF created the seminar, FSA made it happen, Small admits. "David Foy, the FSA executive director, was great, everyone got workshop packets and could call him if they had any questions."
     According to Klimek, SG also looks out for the student body's professional future. "Grad students felt left out of the SG process," Klimek says. "So we're forming a board of graduate students, so they can discuss issues with their peers and then come to SG for assistance."
     SG also partnered up with the Career Center to get the word out about the workshops, Klimek says. "It's also increased the turnout—there was about 250 students," she says. "Recruiters see this is the place to go for employees." According to Small, students wanting full-time careers aren't the only students they've helped. "We sponsored a part-time job fair. We almost doubled the turn-out," he says. "We never paired up before with the career center. We thought about it and they get paid to do it and so do we, so, lets help students get bigger and better. We had no idea the turn-out would be that awesome."
     Regardless of all the new, exciting events, the officers knew offering more wouldn't be their key to success. "Just getting the student's trust back in their Student Government was our biggest challenge. No matter how many programs we had, if we didn't have their trust, it wouldn't work," Klimek says. "We went to every orientation and made sure they knew they could come to us—like our Executive Outreach program. We also have a great relationship with The Oracle. It's not about scandals and soap operas like the past-- it's about the great programs we have."
     Despite all of their successes, Klimek still considers some of SG’s greatest accomplishments to be projects yet to be completed. "We're working really hard to get a bill passed to get taxes off of textbooks. We pushed it to teachers and book-dealers to get as much support," Klimek says. "We're just waiting to hear from the financial impact committee. If it won't work, we might try to do something like just offering once a week during the year."
     Small considers developing a USF park in a depressed part of downtown Tampa a great achievement. "The mayor wanted to do a beautification project," Small says. "So, we wrote a letter saying, that USF is a major research university and that we could use the land." SG’s efforts paid off, and now SG hopes to raise money to finish the park within five years. As Small says, "Architecture students are going to actually design the park." Small says the USF park could be used for "tailgating" before Bulls football games. The team plays in Raymond James Stadium, home to the Tampa Bay Bucs, so USF can’t hang permanent signs or banners. He says the park, hopefully, will be the place to be before the Bulls charge onto the gridiron.
     "It’s been a good year," says Joe Synovec, director of SG administrative services. "They worked really well as a team. Their intent was to help students—not student leaders. The spirit of cooperation has improved greatly since last year. All of their projects are practical and useful."
     "They’re the best in my five years here," says Dr. Wilma Henry, SG advisor. "They know they have to give and take. They’re very organized and outline all of their projects on posters in their office. I’m very pleased with them."
Contact tsmall@soleil.acomp.usf.edu or www.student-gov.usf.edu.

     The University of Central Florida's Student Government Association is working to revamp the organization's image while bringing unique programs to the Orlando school.
     This year, President Dennis Sprenkle is righting the wrongs of last year's "careless and wasteful spending." Before any club can get money, the SGA requires two members from that club to attend a course on rules and regulations for borrowing. "We set a goal to increase existing services and providing funding for new services in an environment where revenues would be significantly less than years past," Sprenkle says. "SGA administrative expenses were reduced by over $800,000. All in all, the SGA budget cuts from 99-00 to 00-01 totaled over $2 million." Of SG’s $6.9 million budget, $2.4 million is earmarked for programs, serving 247 campus organizations.
     SG is in the planning stages of expanding Greek housing. "Student Government is trying to make sure the Greeks are included in the university's master plan, because in the past they've been left out," Sprenkle says. "We plan to build six to seven more Greek houses. We're involved just to lobby for the students, previously IFC [Interfraternity Council] wasn't willing to compromise on the location, so we felt that Student Government would be better suited because we’re willing to compromise."
     According to Sprenkle, not only does the SGA work well with Greeks, but administrators, too. "Our relationship is very strong. We understand their role within the university and we accept that rather than trying to take them on in the past," Sprenkle says. "Administrators were seen as the enemy. I guess we’re mature enough to realize that wasn't going to get things done." Sprenkle says he has a good relationship with the university president, Dr. John Hitt. "We were able to agree on many things—the children's center funds, health funds, and getting student representation on the traffic committee."
     These Knights aren't just getting down to business all the time, they also work on increasing spirit. For example, they bought the rights to televise the football game between UCF and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. "For that particular game, we organized a party in the student union, with faculty and staff," Sprenkle says. "It was successful, because a lot of people showed who couldn't watch it at home."
     The SGA also boosted enthusiasm for homecoming events with a little team work. "Most activities are usually scattered within the clubs, but we decided to work together this time," he says. "We usually only get 8,000 students at a game, numbers for the pep rally were 4,000 to 5,000."
     They, too, had their part in Wake-up Wednesday. "Our lobbyist did the voting drive, we educated people on state-wide elections," Sprenkle says. "George P. Bush visited, we extended the invite to both sides, though. We registered almost 1,000 people on our campus."
     Getting students to participate in activities was hard enough to accomplish, but it was nothing compared to their biggest challenge. "We're trying to restore Student Government's image. Last year had almost a $9 milllion dollar budget, and money was getting thrown everywhere," he says. "This year, we try to stick to our budget, which hasn't been done in years past.
     "There's a couple things we're proud of, because of previous years, all the Student Government branches and other clubs had an adversarial relationship," he says. "We've been able to put the past behind us, and got to be on the same page after a lot of hard work because of the impeachment from last year. When we were first installed we immediately set up applications for the cabinet. Before it wasn't like this, this year we opened the positions to everyone. We actually hired other candidates and people who worked on other campaigns. We were trying to hire people best for the job—people saw we were serious."
     Vice President for Student Development Thomas Huddleston says it’s been a good year for SGA. "They operate under tight fiscal restraints now," he says. "There’s also been a significant change in attitude and an increase in communication."
Contact sprenkle@mail.ucf.edu, (407) 823-2191, or www.sga.ucf.edu.

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