This is a momentous year for the Students’ Union, during which we will celebrate 100 years of serving students, and this theme of celebrating achievements and looking forward is reflected in the major projects that we have in the planning stages over the summer months. The first 100 days are vital, as within them holds the only time that we as a Union have to plan and prepare for the year ahead. These are the days when we can best be proactive and can most effectively generate ideas that will carry this organization into the future…
Over the last 100 days there have been struggles and success, disappointments and exciting overtures. I have done my best to focus on what this year will look like for my Executive and for the organization, but I have also spent time looking forward to the next year, even five or ten years down the road. We must understand what steps we need to take right now, so that future Students’ Union Executives and Councillors are situated to succeed and serve students in ways which meet students needs.
Our Executive is heavily invested in focusing on communications for the 2009/2010 year. This is evident in our major projects, especially the Undergraduate Student Survey. The survey, which is slated to commence in early October, will provide information on our student membership in all aspects of their University careers. This information, as with data collected in the 2001 and 2005 General Surveys, will be crucial on many levels of strategic planning and advocacy. This data will inform our Executive, as well as our successors, and allow us to address emerging trends to better serve students.
Currently in the question development stage, we have already secured a group to create and deploy the survey, as well as to collect all the responses and conduct some preliminary analysis. The interest of the University Administration has been piqued, and we look forward to possible collaborations on the survey, including, but not limited to, further question development, financial implications, and deployment.
Information that we plan to gather from the survey includes demographic information, perceptions of the Students’ Union, as well as information on the academic experience and student life. Preliminary discussions are ongoing in regards to staffing of the deployment, as well as survey completion incentives (i.e., prizing). If you have anything survey-specific that you would like to contribute, please approach me as soon as possible, as the timeline limits us to collaborating before the month of August is over.
Externally, the Students’ Union is very well set to lobby the provincial government this year with the Council of Alberta University Students. Our budget submission will focus heavily on the student financial aid that is so important to undergraduate students. Working with CAUS in the last 100 days has been exciting. There are some fantastic executives from the University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge that share our enthusiasm and passion for accountable government funding and accessible post–secondary education. On a federal level, our membership with the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations will provide us with great opportunities to connect with members of Parliament in Ottawa. The Policy and Strategy Conference was an example of the great success that can come out of having a strong Advocacy Department, clearly laying out lobbying priorities, and making lobbying itself a priority for our Executive.
This is a significant year academically because the new Academic Plan for the University is being created and the SU will submit our major ideas and focus. As one of the four associations involved in the governance of this University, our submission will help shape the lives of many students who will walk through these doors in years to come. Collaboration has been a focus of our Academic team this year, as we continue to seek feedback from all interested student parties, including Councillors like you, faculty associations, and students at large. The Appetite for Change breakfast will be an opportunity for any student to submit to the University Administration an idea of what they want their University to look like. Hopefully the ideas of these bright minds will help to create an undergraduate experience that is truly world class.
Another project that I am very excited about this year, one that has taken a lot of my time in the last 100 days and will provide a shift in the Students’ Union’s event programming, is the newly-designed Revolutionary Speaker and Debate Series. The new series will focus on creating an atmosphere of discussion and collaboration of ideas on our campus. While there is still some leverage in the project to bring in individual speakers, it is my belief that students are more engaged when they can connect with a particular side of a debate. While individual speakers, such as Sue Johanson, have been major successes, it is clear from last year’s student group collaboration, the “Does God Exist?” debate, that there exists an appetite on this campus for facilitated discussions.
Currently there are three debates in the works. The first is an energy debate that is slated to coincide with Sustainability Awareness Week. The idea here is to bring in speakers from across the energy spectrum, including advocates for nuclear power, wind energy, solar power, and oil and gas power for a roundtable discussion on the future of energy in our province. We have some amazing experts in this field at our school who are accessible to us, and connecting students to their ideas engages available resources with the existing appetite.
Other debates that are currently in development include a “Creation vs. Evolution” discussion near the end of January, in collaboration with the U of A Atheists and Agnostics and Campus for Christ, and following the same vein as the “Does God Exist?” debate from last year; and a roundtable discussion on the Israel/Palestine situation in March, which will provide groups like Hillel/Jewish Students Association and the Muslim Students Association an opportunity to share ideas and work towards an open discussion on the University of Alberta campus.
Campus Cup will be a huge, very exciting dodgeball tournament this year, as well as an excellent opportunity for the Students’ Union to connect many of the existing groups on campus in an environment filled with camaraderie and fun. Working with the Residence Halls Association and the Lister Hall Students’ Association has been a fantastic opportunity to connect and build networks that will help support future events. Hopefully we can get some interested stakeholders out to Dare to Dodge: maybe some University Administrators, some City Councillors, and a provincial politician or two. The interest in this event keeps growing, and it is my hope that this event carries on for years to come.
The Street Team will be an exciting opportunity for the Students’ Union to get out of the Students’ Union Building and connect with students all around the University of Alberta. It will be great for promoting events and spreading the word about campaigns. Events like Week of Welcome and Antifreeze will benefit from these grassroots communication initiatives.
One of the most exciting projects I have worked on during the last 100 days has been preparing for us, as a Students’ Union, to celebrate our 100th birthday. This is an amazing opportunity to connect with SU alumni to gain insight on what happened since they left the doors of SUB. Furthermore, our Centenary will provide thematic connections between all of our events, projects, services, businesses, and campaigns. We have existed and served for 100 years; we have had some major successes throughout those 100 years, and also some major setbacks, all worth reflection. There are some very exciting things happening this year which will help to commemorate the last 100 and get ready for the next: renovating the Room at the Top, securing the Dewey’s space for the next three years, making major visual changes to InfoLink, offering a student Health and Dental Plan for the first time, making the Revolutionary Speaker and Debate Series more engaging, and hearing from our student membership through the Survey.
The online presence of the Students’ Union will grow this year. Major upgrades are underway for the Students’ Union website, including the creation of a functional events calendar, so you will never miss another exciting opportunity to get involved. Our Facebook group has grown by almost 40% over the last 100 days, and it continues to grow each day. Keep track of the group and invite your friends, and it will be another great way to keep track of the progress around the Students’ Union. Most of the Executive are on Twitter and have been tweeting about day-to-day activities, as well as interesting readings or websites. Currently, there is some development underway for an Executive blog, which will connect students with advocacy activities of the Executive in real time.
I am so excited to continue my term in the next nine months. I am enthused to hear so many engaged students bring their concerns to me. My Executive has been a fantastic support network. The staff in 2-900 is impeccable and I am confident in the abilities of each and every individual that you entrust with serving students. The last 100 days have gone by quickly, but I am sure that the year itself will go by even faster. I am doing my best to reflect whenever I can. I want to be sure that when this year is done, I have a feeling of accomplishment and success, and that only happens if you take it one day at a time and focus on making the most out of each and every decision, plan, event, campaign, meeting, and phone call.
Thank you for your support and questions, your enthusiasm and collaboration. Thank you for your commitment to the Students’ Union, your Executive, your student groups and faculty associations, your campus recreation teams and lab partners. Thank you for your ideas and thank you for playing devil’s advocate when necessary. Thank you. It is, and will continue to be, appreciated. Thank you for the first 100 days, and thank you for the first 100 years.
I urge you to contact me with any questions or comments at president@su.ualberta.ca. I would love to sit and chat about the next 100 days with each and every one of you.
For the Good and Welfare of the University of Alberta Students’ Union,
I remain, Kory Wallace Mathewson, President, University of Alberta Students’ Union 2009-2010
