Union Board team aims for openness toward students

With the arrival of the new calendar year, Union Board is equipped with a new executive team and set of directors to serve the student body.

The executive team — consisting of AJ O’Reilly as president, Riley Voss as vice president of programming and Rachel Sheppard as vice president of membership — said they look to create a more open and connected Union Board that is able to better serve its student body.

Union Board receives funding from student fees, which is then spent on programming and various events geared toward the student body throughout the year.

“Things like our brand and visual identity and how we are perceived by the campus community will become wider known,” O’Reilly said. “We want to give people the ‘in’ to Union Board.”

Union Board meetings are open for the student public to attend and voice their opinion.

“Our meetings are open, but hardly anyone ever comes,” O’Reilly said. “We want people to know what’s happening with policies, finances, as well as
programming.”

O’Reilly said he aims to establish a newsletter to better inform the student body of Union Board affairs. He also plans to start a blog through Tumblr to help Union Board become more open.

Voss said he plans to utilize more social media, such as Twitter.

“Many times, people join and then drop off. We want to work to change that,” Sheppard said. “We really want to build that family feeling and help retain members.”

Voss aims to use student fee money with more care and bring more programming the students want.

“We want to create more surveying at or after events, in order to see what events students are coming to, who they came to see and who they want to see next,” Voss said. “In our role, we are here to create programs that in someway serve the student body, whether it is to entertain them, educate them, motivate or empower them.”

Though the Union Board budget was reduced by $40,000 last year, the executive team said this will not affect the quality of its programming.

“There are easy ways to minimize costs and tweak our events and even co-sponsor with other organizations,” Voss said. “We are going to put policies together in order to make sure when we put these proposals together that we approach many different organizations.”

Apart from budgetary issues, Union Board also had two vice presidents resign two months prior to the end of their terms. The current executive team said the decision was personal and has no effect on how the board is currently functioning.

“By no means is the decision of the past two directors going to affect what we are planning on doing,” O’Reilly said.

Sheppard said the circumstances serve as a learning experience.

“We’re dedicated, we’re focused, and want to remain open,” he said.

O’Reilly said a year from now, he is hopeful students will see a much finer-tuned Union Board.