After a landslide victory, Team Ignite is getting ready to take office. The newly elected executive UVUSA officers will be sworn in at the beginning of April as part of the Wolverine Achievement awards, but they’ve already started to focus their work on the promises they made during the campaign.
The members of team ignite are looking to build school pride on campus by making themselves available, effective community branding and reaching out to the student body in an attempt to accurately represent their voice.
“I think one thing that the student government has failed at in the sense that we just didn’t know what’s going on with what the students want,” said Jono Andrews, newly elected student body president. “In the past we’ve just said, well, we’ll hope for the best.”
As part of their plan, as they discussed in their campaign platforms during the elections, executive officers plans to brand themselves a recruitment campaign next fall, the first-ever of it’s kind it UVUSA history.
“We’re going to, next year, make sure there’s transparency and that there’s education and awareness of who we are and where we’re at,” said Tyler Brklacich, the vice president of the Academic Senate. “So, you’ll see us actively pursuing that the first two, three, four weeks of school, and then an ongoing campaign through the senate branch, which will be doing student feedback forums and surveys, and that’ll be another way to reach out,”
With this campaign, the team is hoping to create cross-campus collaboration by reaching out through the school’s senate, student council, and other offices and clubs making opportunities to invest into the school widely available.
“What’s important is that we’re drawing in more students through these volunteer opportunities so they’re introduced to leadership opportunities across campus,” Brklacich said. “We need to be an opportunity where we have a group of students, where it’s not just us; we need
to be involving the students.”
Additionally, UVUSA executives hope to increase transparency and communication with the student body’s interest through email surveys, comprised of eight to ten questions. With that, executives still realize that there are limitations in their efforts.
“We understand that we can’t reach all 28,000 students; we’re not going to hold ourselves accountable for that and promise that, but with our campaign, they’re going to know where we’re at,” Brklacich said. “Those students that we can’t reach, they’re going to know that student government is in the student center right across from the ballroom and this is what they do.”
Andrews and Brklacich both expressed an appreciation for UVU and they’re excited to be part of the student government while the school is still young. They hope they can make it into a lasting legacy and create a tradition of strong student voice on campus through the UVUSA officers while the school is still in its infancy.
“We’re not going to feel bad about throwing dances and activities and parties, because that is a part of college and student life and that’s what a great amount of students want,” Brklacich said. “But are there other outlets that we’re forgetting about because we’re not actively asking the students and we’re doing more of what we want? We definitely see that as an issue, and that’s what we want to change.”
Promising transparency and strong student voice through the coming changes that UVU will face in the next year, Team Ignite is looking forward with optimism and enthusiasm. Already with strong student support, the new student body officials will have a year to make good on their goals and hopefully bring some much needed accessibility to the university’s administration.
By Alex Sousa
Reporter
@TwoFistedSousa
Natalie Sullivan
Assistant News Editor
@nhillsullivan
