Student council allows organization members to work together

The newly formed Student Program Council at the University of Richmond will include all student organizations in the planning of events such as Homecoming and Pig Roast.

Members said they hoped the council would be able to cut down on over-programming and deal effectively with budget issues. The Student Program Council will consist of an executive board -- with a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer -- as well as sub-councils with representatives from each student organization on campus.

"Every single student organization on this campus, regardless of its membership or affiliation, will have the opportunity to send a representative to the Student Program Council," said Generra Peck, president of Westhampton College Government Association.

The Student Program Council will plan events such as Homecoming, Family Weekend, Pig Roast, Real World, Alumni Weekend, graduation and potential new events such as Fall Fest.

Steve Bisese, vice president for student development, spoke about his vision for the council. "Hopefully under this system, [events such as] Homecoming will be more inclusive of all groups, and have a much more unifying effect to it."

Under the executive board, a main council will be composed of large governing organizations, Peck said. Groups such as the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council, WCGA, Campus Activities Board and Richmond Rowdies will each send one representative to the council.

The council will also include a representative from the T.C. Williams School of Law and the School of Continuing Studies.

Including the Law School and the SCS would be a way to keep up with what is going on in all the schools, Bisese said.

Under the main council, sub-councils will be made up of sports clubs, political organizations, service organizations, faith-based organizations, academic organizations, arts groups and performing arts groups, Bisese said.

Peck said each organization could send any kind of representative to the sub-councils. Student Program Council members said they hoped to eventually have three to six unifying events per year.

"The way we want to see this happen is that the chairs of these large events are selected six to eight months before the event actually happens," Peck said. "The Homecoming chair is planning from March or February until October getting ready for Homecoming. It'll be great, especially with the stadium coming on campus."

The idea for the Student Program Council is a joint effort between WCGA and Richmond College Student Government Association, Peck said.

The creation of the Student Program Council is an effort to move programming out of the student governments, Peck said.

"There are so many people who want to be involved in the planning of these events, but don't have the interests that correlate to student government," she said.

Both RCSGA and WCGA looked at their roles on campus and decided that they should focus more on student issues than on programming, Peck said.

"If [WCGA and RCSGA move away from programming and] are able to focus on their roles as student representatives, working on behalf of the students in all areas of student life and student development, they will have such a greater impact," she said.

In the past, the student governments have planned Homecoming.

"Homecoming could be so much more than it is," Peck said. "For so long it's been on the student governments to take care of. We're looking for this kind of mechanism for the university to plan Homecoming."

The original proposal for the Student Program Council came from the student governments in 2002, but Alison Bartel Keller, Richmond's associate director of student activities and the director of Greek life, has seen it through.

The Student Program Council will have applications available for executive board positions within the next two weeks, junior Peter Bruckmann said, adding that anyone would be eligible to apply for the executive positions.

"We've met with Dr. Bisese a bunch of times and we've met with Alison Keller," Bruckmann said. "They're ready to go. [The challenge will be] getting the student groups to go along with it and getting the student body to go along with it. Change is never easy. It'll be interesting to see how it works."

The Student Program Council aims to unify the campus by involving all student organizations in the planning of events, but members said they also hoped to solve over-programming and budget issues.

With a council that brings every student organization together, student groups will be able to post their events on a single calendar and even combine events so as not to compete with each other.

"Say D-Squad is putting on a performance, but they also want to include a service component," Peck said. "Well, why not bring in Habitat for Humanity, who's trying to raise money for the project they have down the road in two months?"

This fall, the Homecoming formal was on the same night as a few fraternity socials, so no one wanted to go to the formal, Bruckmann said.

If all the student organizations collaborated on a single calendar, a lot of these problems could be avoided, Peck said.

"We always talk about over-programming on campus, so I think this will be kind of a solution for a lot of those issues," Peck said. "But to be clear, we're not telling any student organizations that they can or cannot have events. They still have autonomy. This council is going to be structured to give them the support they need."

The Student Program Council would help cut down on spending as well, Bruckmann said. The Student Organization Budget and Appropriations Committee provides every student group with funding. The Student Program Council would be allocated money for unifying events.

While a dance group may have had to ask SOBAC for money to perform at Homecoming in the past, the Student Program Council could now include the dance group as one of its Homecoming performances and the dance group would save money, Bisese said.

"Whereas five groups might have each had a buffet, you'd have one common buffet at a big event," he said.

The best way to implement the Student Program Council is to phase it in, Bruckmann said. Putting on six unifying events in its first year would be disastrous, he said.

"The first year, we're trying to get people in [executive positions], inform the student body what the council is, and then maybe start with one or two events," Bruckmann said. "A pilot year is what we're calling it."

Junior Marcellies Pettiford, RCSGA vice president of administration said he hoped to see unity in campus events and bigger programs, particularly Homecoming.

Contact reporter Ryan Clark at ryan.clark@richmond.edu