Students Don't Care: Is it Apathy or Something Else?
Students don't care. Students are apathetic. That's why Student Government's constitutional conventions, town hall meetings and student task forces were a miserable disappointment. Anytime an SG event fails there's someone out there that blames it on apathy.
Apathy works for just about any situation.
But could there be another sinister force out there, lurking behind the scenes, sabotaging SG's ability to serve the students. Could it possibly be advertising or rather a lack there of?
But administrators and SG leaders are quick to point out, smile and pat themselves on the back for all the hard work they put into sending out a mass e-mail out to the students. Therefore, the students know and it's their responsibility to care.
But even Student Body President Austin Shaw admits he deletes mass e-mails from FAU. I rarely check my FAU account, and when I happen to, the first thing I do is delete those annoying "Announcement" e-mails.
If they do send out a mass e-mail, do they have to include a generic subject line that says "Announcement?" That really grabs me, seduces me, and makes me want to read that e-mail before anything else. Yeah right – delete.
Several non-SGers who attended the first convention did not get involved because of the fabulous e-mails that were sent out. No, instead they told me it was the bad publicity they had read in our very own University Press that had made them care. I guess bad advertising is better than no advertising.
SG needs to learn that if they want students to care, they have to give them a reason to care. And a generic e-mail is not going to do that.
Each semester we hold an open house. Some have been successful and some have not. But the most successful ones have been the ones we advertised and promoted.
So I am going offer several options to SG that have worked for the UP in the
past.
Talk to professors: When we were short staffed last semester, we met with several journalism professors who offered UP work as extra credit. It worked. During the Free Food Festival that the UP sponsored last semester (more than 300 students attended and several clubs) several political science professors allowed students to actually skip class to attend as long as they provided proof.
Talk to students – face to face: In addition to mass e-mails – with non-generic subject lines – we visit as many journalism classes as possible. It worked for me. That’s why I joined the UP. The presentation by the UP’s adviser made me care, made me want to get involved, even if it was for my own greedy self-interests.
Free food and lots of it: Any event the UP hosts always includes food – free food. The two town hall meetings on the Boca campus were held during lunchtime and dinnertime. No wonder they were a huge disappointment. Last year the Boca SG decided to severely restrict the percentage of money that could be spend by clubs for food. And the clubs were outraged, and rightfully so. The clubs understand that to get students to attend they need to provide food – free food. They hope that once they get the students there they can keep some of them around. Boca’s SG eventually caved to pressure and lifted some of those food restrictions.
And now I am going to tell SG something that doesn’t work. During last year’s budget hearing several students who were representing clubs actually left the building in tears. Not a good way to promote one's self. I have too often seen clubs treated like criminals or beggars. And when they are made to jump through hoops, and swing from the treetops to get a few scraps thrown at them, it leaves them with a bad impression. One dedicated student in particular comes to mind. He attended five senate meetings in a row, in addition to many sub-committee meetings last semester to get funding for his club. I am sure if he hadn’t his club wouldn’t have received anything. At FAU clubs and regular students are expected to be politicians. They’re not and they don’t want to be.
But I know it doesn’t matter what I write because SG will continue to do as they have done in the past. So I will continue to look forward to many more “Announcements” from SG.
See this post for another possible reason SG cannot get students to care.
Apathy works for just about any situation.
But could there be another sinister force out there, lurking behind the scenes, sabotaging SG's ability to serve the students. Could it possibly be advertising or rather a lack there of?
But administrators and SG leaders are quick to point out, smile and pat themselves on the back for all the hard work they put into sending out a mass e-mail out to the students. Therefore, the students know and it's their responsibility to care.
But even Student Body President Austin Shaw admits he deletes mass e-mails from FAU. I rarely check my FAU account, and when I happen to, the first thing I do is delete those annoying "Announcement" e-mails.
If they do send out a mass e-mail, do they have to include a generic subject line that says "Announcement?" That really grabs me, seduces me, and makes me want to read that e-mail before anything else. Yeah right – delete.
Several non-SGers who attended the first convention did not get involved because of the fabulous e-mails that were sent out. No, instead they told me it was the bad publicity they had read in our very own University Press that had made them care. I guess bad advertising is better than no advertising.
SG needs to learn that if they want students to care, they have to give them a reason to care. And a generic e-mail is not going to do that.
Each semester we hold an open house. Some have been successful and some have not. But the most successful ones have been the ones we advertised and promoted.
So I am going offer several options to SG that have worked for the UP in the
past.
Talk to professors: When we were short staffed last semester, we met with several journalism professors who offered UP work as extra credit. It worked. During the Free Food Festival that the UP sponsored last semester (more than 300 students attended and several clubs) several political science professors allowed students to actually skip class to attend as long as they provided proof.
Talk to students – face to face: In addition to mass e-mails – with non-generic subject lines – we visit as many journalism classes as possible. It worked for me. That’s why I joined the UP. The presentation by the UP’s adviser made me care, made me want to get involved, even if it was for my own greedy self-interests.
Free food and lots of it: Any event the UP hosts always includes food – free food. The two town hall meetings on the Boca campus were held during lunchtime and dinnertime. No wonder they were a huge disappointment. Last year the Boca SG decided to severely restrict the percentage of money that could be spend by clubs for food. And the clubs were outraged, and rightfully so. The clubs understand that to get students to attend they need to provide food – free food. They hope that once they get the students there they can keep some of them around. Boca’s SG eventually caved to pressure and lifted some of those food restrictions.
And now I am going to tell SG something that doesn’t work. During last year’s budget hearing several students who were representing clubs actually left the building in tears. Not a good way to promote one's self. I have too often seen clubs treated like criminals or beggars. And when they are made to jump through hoops, and swing from the treetops to get a few scraps thrown at them, it leaves them with a bad impression. One dedicated student in particular comes to mind. He attended five senate meetings in a row, in addition to many sub-committee meetings last semester to get funding for his club. I am sure if he hadn’t his club wouldn’t have received anything. At FAU clubs and regular students are expected to be politicians. They’re not and they don’t want to be.
But I know it doesn’t matter what I write because SG will continue to do as they have done in the past. So I will continue to look forward to many more “Announcements” from SG.
See this post for another possible reason SG cannot get students to care.
posted by J.P. at
11:57 AM
6 Comments:
i never even received an e-mail about the second Constitutional Convention... i found out about it the DAY BEFORE from someone else...
you'd think for something this important, they'd put more effort into advertising this event, even a simple flyer in the Breezeway...
The fact that SG believes a mass email to fau.edu accounts and that clubs don't need to spend money on food indicates how far removed they are from the psychology of the student body and the realities of campus life itself.
If people only like a club for the free food then lump them all together and call it a eating club; free food is a plus however true club members shouldn't care if there is food or not and go for the purpose of that club.
You're right -- true club members attend clubs on a regular basis for reasons other than food. I know I do.
But they don't BECOME regulars until they are introduced to the club, which is the purpose of the food in the first place. You provide, you pique their interest, they attend, they realize it was a great thing all along.
SG has food at their events all the time.
In fact, a short time after clubs were told in the 2006-2007 Budget meetings that food was irrelevant to attracting people, SG had a presidential debate with free pizza and soda.
Interesting turn of events, wouldn't you say? And it's not just food -- SG makes and gives away plenty of other items like pens and so forth all the time in an effort to attract people to an event or raise awareness of what they do.
That's just part of campus culture.
I agree with your post, but the free pizza and soda for the debate was solely my idea. It was an attempt to attract more students to the debate and have a good time.
Regarding the article. I think it's obvious to anyone who knows anything about student government that the less students are made aware of what is going on and how they are treating people the better off they (student government) are. So they do their best to keep people either unaware or uninformed. Austin Shaw seems to be the exception when it comes to this.
Bryce
Sounds like 'mailicious laziness' to me.
SG needs a big, positive, bold PR move... like fixing up the plants in front of IRT.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home