ASUW plans for the year ahead
Kayla Webley and Garrett McCulloch
2005-08-17
The Daily
With the academic year still more than a month away, members of the incoming ASUW Board of Directors are already making plans for the months ahead.
Student involvement is near the top of the list of the organization’s goals for next year, whether in influencing decision-making or facilitating activities. Jon Lee, the director of faculty, administration and academic affairs, said the organization has hopes of better reaching UW students.
“Previously we’ve had this mentality of having everyone come to us, and this year one of our main goals is to reach out,” said Lee. “It’s more a reversal of roles for us this year.”
ASUW Vice President, Ashley Miller, highlighted the importance of aligning the board’s goals with that of the students in order to be most effective.
“[We want] to get as many students involved as possible,” said Miller. “I have a general idea of what students want [but] we will be doing as much outreach as possible to make sure our goals align with the rest of the student body.”
In Olympia
Along with involvement in ASUW itself, several directors hope to get students involved in the state legislative process. ASUW President Lee Dunbar said bringing UW students with him to Olympia — instead of lobbying just on his own — is among his goals for the next year. Currently, the only large-scale UW student legislative effort is the annual Lobby Day, held during the state legislature’s session.
Gov. Christine Gregoire’s Washington Learns program will be in full swing in the coming months. The 18-month study will look at ways to improve public education in the state, including the six state-funded universities and colleges.
“We are going to need a lot of student perspective, so that whatever comes out of that study has a student voice,” said Dunbar.
Administration
Dunbar and the board also hope to take the side of students in the ASUW’s dealings with the UW administration.
Advising issues are at the forefront of their efforts. Lee said now the UW provides too few advisors for the number of students.
“We need to work with the administration to see how we can help improve advising on this campus, to make sure students are getting the best educational experience possible,” said Lee.
Dunbar also affirmed the ASUW would ensure there is student involvement in the administration current restructuring of undergraduate education.
Inside work
One area the organization will be taking an internal look at is the organization’s bylaws and constitution, said to director of operations, Karl Smith.
“We’re going to go through and clean it up the best we can,” he said.
Another issue Smith plans to take on is the voting system, saying that implementing an instant runoff voting system would give students the option to rank candidates in the order of preference, rather than just voting for one choice.
Programs and events
After the success the ASUW saw with The Shins’ concert last spring, director of programming, Ezana Emmanuel, said the entertainment side of ASUW hopes to put on more large-scale events, though he said he isn’t sure the organization can get an event of the same magnitude.
Emmanuel also has a goal of boosting RainyDawg Radio. He said the station, currently broadcast only over the Internet, needs to pick up listeners before considering a jump to the airwaves.
“If you asked me if we should put it on the air now, I would say no, because no one listens to it,” he said.
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