We’re not yet a week into school, and already campaign promises made by the Associated Students of the University of Utah are coming up short.
Last spring, ASUU President Spencer Pearson and Vice President Basim Motiwala campaigned on, among other things, the promise that they would initiate the creation of a website compilation of all scholarships available to U students. The website would have been a virtual one-stop shop for every scholarship available at the U.
Now, in the wake of a discouraging meeting with U Scholarship Manager Angela Wimmer at which our student leaders were told their idea was not plausible, that promise might be broken. ASUU has decided not to move forward with the website.
Wimmer’s assertion that the difficulties in creating a scholarship website are “insurmountable” seems a bit far-fetched, though. In the past, ASUU has compiled and cross referenced all student groups and made that information available in the Campus Information System. Students are given contact information and are able to use the database to compile a list of the groups that would be best suited for them according to their interests.
If it can be done with the numerous student groups on our campus, why can’t it be done with scholarships?
Although it is easy to say that the scholarship manager shouldn’t have been so discouraging of its efforts, ASUU shouldn’t have backed down so easily. A promise was made to students and it has a responsibility to do what it takes to fulfil it.
Maybe it sounded like it would be an easy task, or perhaps the only thought was of appealing to the masses during an election and the rest would be figured out later. But now that the other foot has dropped, ASUU needs to come together and see that the site — which would likely benefit a majority of students at the U — is still an attainable goal. It’s just going to have to do its own leg work.
If it’s not going to get the helping hand it had hoped for from the U, it should contact every department on its own, compile the data and hire a web designer to put it all together — or better yet, have the ASUU web designer put it together. When it comes down to it, it is still a project that ASUU can accomplish, and it owes it to the student body it represents to get it done.