There are over one hundred and fifty clubs in the Rensselaer Union that rely on the services and guidance of the Union in order to hold the large amount of student activities that we have all come to know and enjoy on campus. It is a simple fact that the President of the Union is only as strong as his or her Executive Board, and selecting the E-Board will be my primary focus for the next two weeks. I am beginning interviews for the 2004-2005 E-Board, and I am calling on the student body to provide a deep and talented pool of applicants. With a larger amount of applicants I expect to fill an extremely qualified, committed, and diverse board.
One of the major things that I want to accomplish as PU is to expand the role of E-Board members. I am going to implement a plan that will create a more active, rather than reactive, board. E-Board members will be playing an increased role in club activities and events, acting as a leader for that group and a liaison back to the rest of the E-Board speaking on behalf of their future interests and current needs. In the upcoming year the Union will begin an evaluation off all its funded clubs and activities so that it may identify current student interests and make sure they are met.
Currently, there is no way to tell how well a Union funded event or program performed. I am going to make clubs and board members more accountable for their use of Union funds by concentrating the evaluation on membership numbers, success of the activity, and most importantly, what this activity has brought back to the campus. We can do a better job to react to the changing interests in the general student body and allow more students to see their activity fee dollars.
In my two years experience on the E-Board, the most disheartening experiences occurred when the board was forced to deny a large number of students an activity due to a lack of equipment or resources. I believe that the Union can make student interests the limiting factor when it comes to student activities.
This will not be possible without a more active board. I will be asking more from applicants, and Rensselaer Union can expect more in return. I want to see the members taking more pride in their position, and have a better appreciation for the tremendous amount of responsibility that they have. The structure of the student government here at Rensselaer is quite rare in that students make all the decisions, so I ask for students to take advantage of this opportunity for their voice to be heard. As an E-Board member, studuents will work with an $8.5 million dollar budget and gain experience in working with students that they will take with them through their lives beyond Rensselaer.
