Ben Singer’s Plan for a Better USC

Connected
The USC does a lot of good work and runs much meaningful
programming; however, it does not connect to every Western student.
Through the following initiatives, we can increase knowledge of the
USC and involvement in student life:

1) Committing to an up-to-date, relevant and easy to use

website.

The current website does not adequately serve the needs of

students. The interface will be improved, making it easier for
everyone to navigate. The front page will include more
accessible information about upcoming events and initiatives.
USC members (commissioners & coordinators), will have
ownership of their pages. As well, final reports and a ‘how to
apply’ section will be added. The Long Term Plan calls for the
initiation of online purchasing for USC services – the first service
to be provided will be purchasing club memberships through the
USC website.

2) Improving involvement fairs on campus introducing our USC

and the opportunities it provides to both first-year and upper
year students.

Currently, some residences offer involvement fairs for their

students to become engaged in residence councils. The USC will
commit to attending these and ensuring as many branches of
the USC as possible are represented, so as to personally engage
first year students in topics they are interested in. The USC will
also commit to facilitate residence ‘meet & greets’ later in the
year, for First Year Students interested in running or applying for
USC Positions. The USC will engage upper-year students by
hosting portfolio-specific wine and cheese events, where VPs,
coordinators and commissioners will be available and accessible
for anyone interested in applying for a position in their portfolio.

3) Introducing a database and HR coordinator to facilitate a

more personal outreach program.

Currently, there is no official follow up for students who show

interest in the USC, either through applying for a position or
visiting the USC office. The USC will establish a database to
record the information of students who express interest in areas
of the USC. Councilors, commissioners, coordinators and Board
 members will use this database to personally contact students
interested in their initiatives. Councilors will be able to use this
information to create relationships with interested constituents
and truly represent their wants and needs. All precautions will be
taken to guarantee the privacy of every student’s personal
information.

4) Ensuring all applications for commissionerships, coordinator

positions and new clubs are online, and working for students
to see their goals accomplished.

Currently, some applications (committees, sophs) are online

while others are not, greatly inconveniencing interested
students. All applications, will be made available online and,
where appropriate, this will include online submission. During the
commissioner & coordinator application process, should an
applicant be qualified but unsuccessful, board members will be
encouraged to appoint them to a relevant position or committee
that remains unfilled.

5) Working with our constituency councils to disseminate a

better version of the involvement guide.

The USC currently publishes an involvement guide, which is not

being distributed as widely as possible. A condensed version of
the involvement guide will be published in the front of the
‘Westernizer’. The full version will be made available on the
website, with a link to it on the home page. Partial funding will be
made available for each faculty to publish its own involvement
guide, if the guide includes the condensed USC guide.

6) Committing the President to 2 hours/week of ‘Open Office

Hours’ in the Spoke.

The President must be available, and stay connected, to the

general student body. While the schedule of the President is
hectic, 2 hours every week is the minimum that will be spent
connecting to students on a personal and very direct level.

Diverse
To continue to have the Best Student Experience in Canada, our USC
needs to foster a culture of diversity. This will be accomplished by:

1) Refining the role of the VP Student Events and refocusing

this position on the multitude of student organizations on
campus.
 In the past, nominees for the role of VP Student Events tend to
focus on programming, a role duplicated by the Student Life
department, while student organizations do not receive the focus
they require. The position VP Student Events will be, in
consultation with the outgoing and incoming board, retooled and
refocused to primarily support our student organizations – this
will better serve the 18,000 students involved in the system.

2) Ensuring that the maximum amount of funding is available

for student organizations to program, empowering them to
better represent and serve their constituents and members.

Currently, of the $30,000 of funding available to student

organizations on campus, only $20,000 is open for any group to
apply to, only $10,000 of which is available for non-‘Green,’
general programming. The $10,000 Member Council Initiative
Fund will be rolled into the existing Finance Fund to maximize the
amount of funding available for student organizations to provide
programming outside the scope of their budgets. The Green Fund
will remain a separate fund, to inspire student organizations to
think, act and program in an environmentally friendly fashion.
Both funds will be better publicized to the general student body,
to ensure that all our students are able to take advantage of
them.

3) Facilitating optional best practices and training with

professional staff for our constituency councils

Currently, there are a number of forums for council presidents or

VPs to meet and discuss ideas, but they can be infrequent,
sparsely attended or lack relevance. Constituent council
Presidents and VPs could do more with their councils if given
more sharing, learning and networking opportunities. The USC
will facilitate sessions in the areas of programming, promotion,
financing, academic advocacy and philanthropy, to be led by our
professional staff or outside hires. The USC will commit to having
the Presidents Roundtable (Caucus of Student Presidents) meet
once a month and have at least one session for VPs each
semester.

4) Promoting diversity currently on campus through the “This

is My Western” Campaign.

“This is My Western” will be a showcase of the diversity of ideas,

interests and accomplishments of Western undergraduate
students. Submissions will be taken in categories ranging from
 visual art and athletics to scientific achievement and business
entrepreneurship, all focusing on the theme of what makes our
school so unique. The best of these submissions, to be judged by
a panel consisting of professors and students-at-large, will be
highlighted in a very public atrium event.

5) Offering USC resources to facilitate debate between campus

groups, eg. Speaker of council.
Currently, there are a number of student organizations on
campus looking to promote their causes and express their views
to the Western student body in a respectful way. The USC will
commit to facilitating proper debates between groups that may
find themselves with opposing viewpoints they wish to express.
The USC will only do so should both groups decide they wish to
take advantage of this opportunity and will not initiate any such
debate, to prevent undue pressure being placed on a group that
does not wish to participate.

6) Implementing Clubs Week .5, an opportunity for clubs to

directly connect to students in residence.

First year students, during their first few weeks on campus, may
not have the opportunity or time to become involved in clubs.
The USC will work with Residence Life and residence councils to
organize a display of clubs in residence in the week immediately
following Clubs’ Week. Clubs choosing to take advantage of this
opportunity will be rotated through residences during the week,
so that every group of residences is able to view as many clubs
as possible. For example, a club may be at Saugeen on Monday,
Med-Syd on Tuesday, Perth/Essex on Wednesday and Delaware
on Thursday.

Relevant
Every student pays into our USC, but not every students sees the
relevance of it. We will ensure the USC continues to provide relevant
services to students by:

1) Committing to the construction of a bus shelter by the UCC

before next winter.

Students waiting for the bus in front of the UCC and Weldon must
wait in rain, snow, sleet or hail, without any protection from the
elements, or risk missing their bus by walking to Alumni Hall or
Natural Science. The USC will commit to having a bus shelter
built before winter of 2009. Physical Plant Department estimates
the cost of such an initiative at $7000. The USC will advocate
that both the London Transit Commission and the University
 provide funding for this necessary service to students, but can
fund the shelter if both prove unresponsive.

2) Creating a ‘USC Transcript’ of involvement as a first step

towards a cross-curricular transcript, a seen at many American
universities.

Students engaged in extracurricular activities currently have no

way to guarantee their involvement short of listing positions and
accomplishments on a resume. Phase One of this project will
have the USC develop data-mining techniques to accurately put
together a comprehensive list of involvement for every student
and publish this list as an official extra-curricular transcript, to
supplement grad school and job applications. Phase Two will
have the USC advocate to the Senate to include the information
the USC is collecting in their official transcript, creating a truly
cross-curricular transcript.

3) Supporting our Student Senators and BOG representatives

in representing the needs of all undergraduates to Western’s
governing bodies.

While students currently have representatives on both the

University’s Board of Governors and Senate, their effectiveness
has been limited in advocating for the issues students truly care
about. The USC will commit to ensuring optional training and
continuing learning workshops directed at the BOG and Senate
representatives, but open to all students interested in furthering
their own knowledge and abilities.

4) Lobbying the administration alongside Student Senators

and BOG representatives on issues that impact students
directly, like increasing the budget for needs based financial
aid and promoting internship and service learning
opportunities.

The USC must continue to lobby the university on issues relevant

to students, both small and large. These efforts will be improved
through increased partnership with the Student Senators and
BOG representatives, as well as members of constituency
councils. Constituency council members will be offered training
and encouraged to advocate to their faculty administration on
issues related to their specific faculty. Wide-ranging lobby
priorities will include:

o Increasing the needs based financial aid available to

ensure that any qualified student can attend and excel at
Western, regardless of their financial status. In light of the
current economic times, this will be difficult, but also
 becomes increasingly necessary.

o Creating new internship and co-op programs at Western, so

that students can learn valuable skills while pursuing credit
and paying for their education.

Narrower lobby priorities will include:

o Identifying Internet ‘dead zones’ and advocating the

University to fill them with additional signal boosters.

o Reducing rental fees to student organizations for

University owned rooms.

o Implementing recycling in more places on campus,

primarily outdoors.

5) Partnering with the University to publicize financial aid

opportunities.

The University’s financial aid budget is not exhausted every year,

in part because many scholarships and bursaries have limited
criteria that minimize the number of eligible applicants. The USC
will do more to promote these scholarships and bursaries,
including utilizing our ever-expanding network to spread word.

6) Communicating progress in our internal and external lobby

efforts, with short, monthly emails through the accting1
system.

Too few students know about the internal and external lobbying
the USC currently does, making the organization seem irrelevant.
The President of the USC will send out a short email every month
through the accting1 system, addressing what the USC has been
doing to benefit students. To ensure it is short and unobtrusive,
this email will only include updates on lobbying and programs
that affect all students.