IUSA prepares for summer, fall 2012

After a joint meeting between Hoosier Youth Advocacy and IU Student Association’s Movement administration Wednesday night, plans were made to revisit the Tax-Free Textbook initiative, originally started by the previous Big Six administration.

“We know students are fed up with the rising cost of education,” said Patrick Courtney, vice president of administration. “This is one small step for getting to our ultimate goal of reducing the cost of higher
education.”

Though the Big Six’s efforts to get this initiative to the state level were unsuccessful, Chief of Staff Augustin Ruta said he thinks with the additional experience Movement has gained during the last year, there will be a better chance of it becoming a bill and passing.

“We’re a year smarter this year,” Ruta said.

Movement will again team up with Hoosier Youth Advocacy and plans to meet with legislators they had previously established relations with during their work on the Lifeline Law during the summer.

“A lot of what our administration plans to focus on is the rising cost of higher education,” Ruta said. “This is part of a larger message that students need
additional help reducing education costs.”

Though most of the senior staff will not be in Bloomington this summer due to internships and other demands, President Kyle Straub said tasks will be divided among other administration members who are staying in the area.

“A quarter of our administration’s time is in the summer, so we definitely want to make some headway,” Ruta said.

As vice president of administration, Courtney said his main focus will be to lead further development of Movement’s platform: the campus-wide Safe Ride program, Hoosier information kiosks, Rec Sports e-reserve system and Light Up IU.

Movement will continue meetings with respective organizations and administrators related to each initiative to get them as ready as possible for the coming school year.
Straub said the summer session offers Movement the chance to meet with administrators who become more available than they are during the regular school year.

“We’ll be able to present our ideas in a formal way,” Straub said.

Ruta said the administration determined, after taking a campus safety walk to identify the least-lit places on campus, that Law Lane by the Student Recreational Sports Center will be the first area of campus to receive attention for the Light Up IU initiative.

Movement also plans to further explore the best way to structure their “town hall” meetings planned to start in the fall. These meetings will act as a place for students to voice their concerns and questions about the campus in some form of public forum.

“We want to use this summer to become as well-informed as possible,” Ruta said.

Straub said the recently added campus outreach branch of the administration will meet with a variety of students to determine how these meetings can best reach out to constituents.

“We want to figure out the ideal structure, not only from our perspective, but from the students’ as well,” Courtney said.

Some members of the administration will also focus on recruiting incoming freshmen for the freshman internship program at summer orientation.

While the number of interns the administration plans to take will remain about the same, Straub said he hopes to add more to their positions to increase the content and effectiveness of their internship to make it a worthwhile experience.

Courtney said he is most excited for the administration to hit the ground running in August.

“We’re in a much different place than we were last year,” Courtney said. “By fall we’ll have all our parts of the administration working as a well-oiled machine.”