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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

IUSA focuses on restructuring, reforming student government

Reflecting on the past semester, IU Student Association recognized that, while it was a productive semester, many of their initiatives still needed work.

“We think next semester is going to be a crucial time to finish that last leg of the race very strong,” IUSA Vice President Pat Courtney said. “We’re sprinting to the finish line on a lot of these initiatives.”

Internal Reform
Since November’s town hall meeting, the IUSA administration reconsidered how they connect with and cater to students, IUSA President Kyle Straub said.

Above all, the current executives sought to reform the infrastructure of IUSA to more efficiently serve as the voice of the students.

“A lot of students have expectations, but when people come into the administration, they take how it works at face value,” Straub said. “But this year, what we have really tried to do is change the structure so that all subsequent administrations to come have a more robust structure and foundation.”

Internal transformations aren’t the most “attractive” points of an administration’s accomplishments, Straub noted, but he said shifting this structure helps the IUSA more effectively do its job.

“We’ve been pretty criticized for a rough transition because there is so much institutional knowledge you need to know,” Straub said.

To solve this, the current administration created a packet of comprehensive transition materials so the 2013-2014 administration would “really grasp the core of the IUSA.”

Part of reinvigorating the student government, Straub said, is reorganizing the branches of IUSA so each branch serves its original purpose.

In particular, Straub said he wants to see students more aptly approach members of IUSA

Congress with concerns and have the executive branch actually follow through on any legislation passed by Congress.

Congress has 62 members, Vice President of Congress Stephanie Kohls said in an email, and has recently focused on increasing the amount of fully active, involved members in the Assembly.

“Congress has focused most of its energy on becoming a more representative body and becoming a voice of the students by holding each other accountable and writing more researched resolutions,” Kohls said.

This semester, Congress members are more responsible for their own resolutions, making Congress more able to check the power of the executive branch, Kohls said.

“In years past, it’s been the discretion of the executive whether to act or not,” Straub said. “But now we want the whole student body to decide.”

A typical government body has a Congress that sets the agenda and votes on legislation. Such a system has never been adapted to an IUSA state of mind, Straub said. IUSA executives usually came into office knowing what they were going to do, often by speaking to their friends, and then did what they saw fit, he said.

This year, the IUSA set out to create initiatives based on student desires. This information was largely gathered in the Vision of the Ideal College Environment (VOICE) report, Straub explained. This report contained a survey comprised of 224 questions answered by 14 percent of the student body.

“We want to experience the true beauty of government, just doing what the original roles were founded to do,” Straub said. “IUSA strayed from that.”

The VOICE report also directed a number of IUSA’s most forward-moving initiatives this semester, Straub said.

The report itself was one of the most successful of their initiatives, as it contained concrete evidence of desired initiatives and was highly valued by the University administration, he said.

Platform Initiatives
Safe Ride was one of those initiatives. The VOICE report survey data contained many concerns about nighttime transportation and emergency transportation, and Safe Ride seeks to amend these issues, Straub said.

Through this system, a student can call the Safe Ride number and get a ride home until the very early hours of the morning. IUSA hopes to send in the final proposal to the dean of students and University president at the beginning of second semester.

Straub was also very proud of his Culture of Care initiative. Culture of Care is an effort to create a more accepting atmosphere on the IU campus.

“Some say it didn’t work,” he said. “Simply, that’s false. We are working very intimately with Student Life and Learning. They’ve completely restructured employees’ roles to embody Culture of Care.”

The scope of Culture of Care has reached across the state, he said. High schools and other educators have inquired about the program. At the University level, Culture of Care is being incorporated into training programs for other student organizations, like Greek 101, a program that greek members go through joining a greek organization.

Light Up IU, an initiative on the original platform for the Movement ticket, received little attention this semester. Straub said after meetings with the University and consideration by IUSA that the initiative was dropped because it would have been too much of a challenge.

“It would have been a complete uphill battle,” he said.

Student Representation
Above all, both Straub and Courtney said the IUSA stepped up to represent students and voice student concerns in a number of groups and boards.

Both Straub and Courtney have sat in on meetings by University decision-makers to provide a student perspective.

“We’re shifting our focus from being completely an initiative-based organization to a really representative group going to bat for student issues,” Courtney said.

Straub provided a number of examples, particularly the online course questionnaires.

These new questionnaires have faced opposition from a number of faculty. Around 200 faculty members have signed a petition against the new system since it allows students to have access to the results of four particular “student access questions” that would provide information on instructor performance to students, Straub said. IUSA members helped implement the idea.

“If students hadn’t been at the table, we would not have access,” he said. “I have been adamant. Students use Rate my Professor. Anything is more legit than that.”

Straub said he does not see himself giving up on any of the initiatives currently on their plate.

“Anyone who has worked with the administration has known that you can say something is really easy to implement, but with all the barriers, it takes at least a year to get them done,” he said.

Many of their initiatives may not come into full effect until fall 2013, he said.

“We definitely have a lot of things to do,” Courtney said. “But we’re extremely excited about where we’ve gone so far.”

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