Washington University Student Union

The Washington University Student Union is the undergraduate student government of Washington University in St. Louis. Student Union (SU) represents the student body in the administration's decision-making process, ensuring that students have a voice in the academic and social decisions which directly affect them. SU carries out three major activities: representing student interests, registering, funding, and supporting student groups, and planning campus-wide events. It is divided into three branches: the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. All three branches work collaboratively to promote the welfare of the campus community as a whole. Approximately 225 student groups on campus are registered SU groups, utilizing a large portion of the over $2 million budget. SU also publishes Bearings, the unofficial student handbook, and its supplemental website.

Student Union is unique among American student governments in that it encounters very little interference or supervision from University administrators, and takes upon itself the responsibilities that many Student Activities offices would normally handle. Also making Student Union unique is that none of its representatives receive compensation, class credit, or "perks" of any form.

History

Student Union was created in 1967-1968 when students were actively protesting the Vietnam War. For several decades prior to this, there was a student Senate, whose role was primarily to serve as "the voice" of the student body to the University administration. This new governing body, originally called the Student Assembly, allocated money to student groups through the Office of Student Activities. Students were unhappy with the restrictions on their funds and with the limited power they had to allocate money for activities. In the spring of 1968, Kevin Funabashi, an undergraduate student, proposed a new form of government that would utilize a student activity fee to fund student groups. Kevin was elected later that spring to the new governing body, Student Union.

With an original student activity fee of $25, Student Union began to allocate funds to student groups. In 1969, a new Constitution was ratified that covered pertinent topics of the day, such as setting up a bail fund for students who were jailed for protesting against the war. Concert performances by the Grateful Dead and Marvin Gaye helped to raise these funds.

During the 1970s, Student Union was a middle ground for coalitions and political parties on campus. Student Union committees were formed to tackle issues such as tuition increases. In 1979, Student Union established its permanent office in the garden level of the Women’s Building. During the early 1980s as the University was embarking on an era of increasing financial resources and as interest in student involvement grew, the student activities fee was changed from a flat dollar rate per student that was adjusted infrequently to 1% of the cost of tuition per student.

Branches of Government
Executive Branch

The Executive Branch is composed of four individuals who are elected by the collective student body - the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. The goal of the Executive Branch is to represent the student body to the University administration and lead and motivate the Student Union. All four members meet regularly in Executive Council sessions, along with the Student Union advisor and Legislative leadership.

The President acts as the official representative of SU, and is generally the point of contact to internal and external media organizations. The President convenes and sets agendas for Executive Council meetings, may veto acts of the Senate, and gives a State of the Student Union address once per semester. The President appoints students to various University standing committees, such as the Library Council, the Academic Calendar committee, and the University Judicial Board. The President will frequently meet with the University Board of Trustees and other University committees to provide reports and guidance of student activities on campus.

Much of the Vice President's duties and responsibilities will change in the 2008-2009 academic year, if the Executive Restructuring amendment passes in an upcoming election. The Vice President is charged with encouraging, promoting, and maintaining programming on campus. Currently, the Vice President oversees the Executive Committees, a group composed of both the leadership of the Social Programming Board (the four largest campus programming student groups) and student media groups. The VP also chairs the internal Student Union committee, the Outreach, Recruitment, and Retention committee, whose goal is to recruit new membership into Student Union and retain current members. Over the summer, the Vice President plans Student Union's pre-orientation program for incoming freshman students, which is used as a recruiting tool for Student Union.

The Treasurer is charged with collecting, managing, and disbursing Student Union's annual budget. The Student Union Treasurer, using input from the President, will create the organization's annual budget and determine the allocation to all major accounts. The Treasurer will not allocate money specifically to individual student groups - this is the role of the Budget Committee of the Legislature - but the Treasurer will determine how much money is available to student groups on a collective basis. Along with the collaboration of the rest of the Executive Branch, the Treasurer will set funding allocations for student groups classified as Executive Committees. Throughout the year, the Treasurer is the point of contact for all student groups' financial questions, conducts mandatory training sessions for all student group treasurers, and oversees a staff of three full time business managers who process expense reports. The Treasurer also oversees the internal Student Union operating budget and ensures that Student Union has adequate physical plant and resources for student groups.

Like the Vice President, the Secretary's role will greatly be altered with the passage of the Executive Structuring amendment. Currently, the Secretary takes minutes at all Student Union meetings - both Executive and Legislative. The Secretary chairs the Public Relations committee, whose task is to serve as consultants to student groups on marketing and advertising, help publicize elections, and work with the Outreach, Recruitment, and Retention committee on publicizing Student Union itself. The Secretary is also Student Union's archivist.

Executive Committees and School and Class Councils

Executive Committees are those groups on campus that have the primary goal of programming to or providing services for the campus community as a whole. These groups are funded and overseen by the Student Union executives, with the belief that as Executive Branch is entrusted with leading and motivating the student body as a whole, these far-reaching groups are tools to accomplish the Executive Branch's purpose. These groups tend to be the largest on campus, and traditionally these 12 groups receive around 20% of the overall Student Union budget. These groups include , who puts on a semesterly concert in the Brookings Quadrangle featuring big-name musical acts, called Walk In Lay Down (WILD); the Campus Programming Council, which holds a weekly happy hour, a comedy series, and other large scale events; the Student Health Advisory Committee; KWUR; and WUTV 22, among others.

The Executive branch also oversees the five School Councils of Arts & Sciences, Business, Engineering, Art, and Architecture, and the four Class Councils. Each of these bodies serves more of an event planning and programming role than a governing role. The Washington University Engineer's Council, or EnCouncil, has been named the United States' best EnCouncil by the National Association of Engineering School Councils for several years running.

Legislative Branch

The Legislative Branch is compromised of two houses - the Senate and the Treasury.

The Senate consists of 27 people representing the five undergraduate academic divisions of Washington University. It makes many official Student Union decisions, called Resolutions. There are currently 18 Arts and Sciences senators, three Engineering senators, and two each from Architecture, Art, and Business. Each senator represents 250 students from his/her academic division and serves a one-year term. Students will only vote for Senators from his or her respective division. Among the Senate's recent accomplishments include a resolution for faculty members to distribute course syllabi in all classes and post midterm grades, a resolution advocating for increased capabilities of the student ID card, and a resolution urging the creation of a GLBTQ resource center and full-time staff member. The University administration implemented all requested mandates in these resolutions.

All Senators are required to take on an individual project throughout his or her term. In 2006, Senators Jonathan Lane and David Hall placed solar panels on the top of Olin Library, which now provide 1 kW of power to the library. Throughout 2005-2006, Senator Jeff Zove sponsored the resolution advocating increased capabilities of the student ID card; now, students can add money to the card and use it at vending machines, printers in the library, and soon the campus bookstore. Senators will also serve on one of two committees - the Campus Services committee, which focuses on general campus issues, or the Academic Affairs committee, which focuses on issues pertaining to academic life.

The Treasury is the other house of the Legislature. Only established in April 2003, it a relatively new body. Prior to this, the Student Union Treasurer jointly took on the responsibilities of the current Treasury along with former Senate committees. The Treasury consists of 19 elected students with no division-specific quota. At each weekly meeting, new student groups will be approved, new budget requests will be considered, and allocation policies will be addressed. As with the Senate, the Treasury has two sub-committees. The Budget Committee decides on specific allocation amounts to individual student groups after going over their budget requests. The Student Group Activities Committee, or SGAC, interviews and registers new student groups on campus, helps put out How Things Work, assists in coordinating the semesterly Activities Fair, and strives to be a resource for student groups in any way possible.

Judicial Branch

The Judicial Branch is composed of the Constitutional Council, including one chairperson, the Chief Justice, and four other Associate Justices. The Constitutional Council convenes to interpret the Constitution, hear any cases of recall or alleged misconduct, and review any act of a Student Union representative.

Also contained in the Judicial Branch is the Election Commission, whose role is to coordinate general elections and develop and enforce campaign rules. Elections are very popular on campus, and nearly every position has multiple candidates campaigning. Executive Officers and Class Council Officers may run in parties, or "slates", while all other positions are campaigned individually. Voter turnout in elections has approached 40% over the past several years, a figure that is remarkably high for student government elections.

Student Groups

Student Union provides many services and resources to the student groups on campus. Upon ratification by SGAC as a student group, it will receive a mailbox, a copy code to use on both the color and black and white copiers, flyer posting privileges, space reservation privileges, a telephone line, an email account, and web space. Groups are able to request office space and use storage facilities. Groups can submit budget requests to the Budget Committee up to an unlimited amount once per semester, and submit appeals for additional funding at any point during the semester.

Executive Restructuring

Student Union has largely overextended itself beyond the provisions of the current Constitution, which was ratified in 2003 but has largely stayed the same since the 1970s. Among the issues include the burden on the Vice President. With the proposed Executive Restructuring Amendment, the current Vice President's role will be split into two positions - the Vice President for Programming and the Vice President for Administration. The former position will be focused on campus programming, while the latter position will be focused on internal matters within Student Union. One criticism with the current Constitution is that the President is on the same level as the VP, Treasurer, and Secretary, and executes no real authority. The new Amendment strives to establish a more hierarchical structure for greater efficiency. The Secretary will change to focus more on public relations and marketing, instead of taking minutes, with a dual role of attracting more student interest for this position and enabling one person to better direct Student Union's publicity efforts. The Treasurer's role will essentially stay the same. All titles will be renamed to include Vice President in the title.

Accomplishments

Many of Student Union's accomplishments have a substantial effect on the day-to-day activities of each student on campus. These include:

* Publication of the undergraduate student handbook, Bearings
* Resolution calling for the creation of a GLBTQ resource center and a staff coordinator responsible for GLBTQ involvement on campus
* Contracting of the Ruckus Network on campus to provide students with a free tool of downloading music and movies
* Creation, upkeep, and funding of the Spark Calendar, the academic and event calendar for Undergraduates
* Placement of solar panels on buildings to increase sustainable energy usage on campus
* Increased capabilities of the Student ID card, spearheaded by Jeff Zove of the Class of 2007
* Provision of free copies of the New York Times, USA Today, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch availably daily at several locations on campus
* Development of Final Friday, a day devoted to large-scale campus programming before finals week
* Addition of a second office in Umrath Hall to serve as a student group resource center with offices, storage space, and business supplies.
* Development of an online marketplace for student groups to post merchandise for sale to the public and accept credit card payments, shop.WUSTL, created by Jason K. Lewis of the Class of 2007
* Advocacy for wireless internet access available in residential dorms, to be available in Fall 2007
* Advocacy for mixed gender housing to allow upperclass males and females to live in the same suite, scheduled to go into effect in Fall 2008
* Placement of overnight storage lockers in Olin Library
* Funding of the Assembly Series, a weekly lecture series that brings high-profile speakers to campus each week. Past speakers have included Kurt Vonnegut, Seth McFarlane, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Cornel West, Ann Coulter, Alan Lightman, Mo Rocca, Thomas Friedman, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Jr., Michael Kimmel, and Paul Rusesabagina

Leadership

Because of Student Union's wide variety of responsibilities and the opportunities that they provide, representatives gain a wide variety leadership skills by participating in the organization. Students are able to apply their academic interests to their extracurricular lives, from finance to marketing, from web developing to event planning, and from writing to political science. Aside from leadership skills gained from from experience, students also have the opportunity to undergo formal training, from programs both at the University and outside the University, such as LeaderShape.

Student Union graduates are well represented at companies across various industries. Alumni include consultants for Deloitte and the Corporate Executive Board, investment bankers at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, account executives at Leo Burnett Worldwide, Software Developers at Microsoft, teachers at Teach for America, engineers at Raytheon, administrators in higher education, lawyers at top U.S. law firms, and students at top graduate schools around the world.

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