Leah HennigEvery year in the beginning of the fall semester, the University of Alberta Students’ Union (UASU) puts on Week of Welcome (WOW). There’s plenty of resources and fun for students, whether it’s their first year or their fourth. And in the midst of it all, are the elected UASU executives.
During WOW, they are ever-present — talking to students, being visible, being friendly. It’s all really great to see. But WOW is the easiest time to be present and active on campus with students. Once it’s over and things calm down, the UASU tends to become background noise for most students. But it shouldn’t.
It’s not surprising that once the UASU’s biggest event of the year is over that students’ attention turns elsewhere. We’ve got classes, clubs, work, family, and friends to worry about. But the UASU needs to engage with students year round. And not just offer opportunities for students to come to the executives. They need to go to students, on campus, when they’re going about their regular day.
Simply having an open-door policy and bi-weekly council meetings that students can attend isn’t enough. Unless there’s a major issue, students likely aren’t going to go out of their way to tell executives their problems. Even if they do run into a big problem the UASU could help solve, students will likely try to solve the problem as quickly as possible so they can get on with their lives.
There are ways for the executives to integrate themselves with the daily rhythm of campus. The UASU needs to go to events happening around campus or even put on more regular events like those at WOW. Its executives need to engage with students everyday, whether they’re hanging out on Main Quad between classes or waiting for the bus.
Beyond just that, the UASU needs to show its worth. It needs to show real results to students for all the work the executives do. And students need to actually feel it. That’s easier said than done, of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
If students feel heard and see action on the issues they care about, they’d probably be more willing to go to the UASU directly. They won’t feel like it’s a waste of time to go talk to an executive or even vote in the UASU general elections. Nonetheless vote in by-elections, which usually get even less engagement.
Year after year, the vast majority of students don’t even bother to vote. And that’s something that only takes a couple minutes to do. Going out of their way to talk to an executive would take even longer. While low voter turnout could be attributed to students’ general apathy for political engagement, the UASU can combat that. In fact, it’s part of the UASU’s responsibilities to change that. The UASU can’t serve all undergraduate students if it doesn’t hear from most of them.
It’s up to the UASU to engage with students, not the other way around. Students aren’t paid to do that extra work like the executives are. There’s no reason this year’s executive team has to follow in the distant footsteps of the teams before them. If they do, we simply have a union that represents a semi-vocal but small chunk of our undergraduate student population.
