The Focus Party plans to improve ASUU’s relationship with the student body by emphasizing opportunities for students on campus and more actively seeking student feedback.
Student feedback
To understand what students want, the Focus Party plans to establish a Student Survey and Assessment Board in the Associated Students of the University of Utah. The new board would be in charge of pollster teams that would go around campus and collect students’ opinions about what ASUU is doing and what they would like to see ASUU do. The board would conduct surveys through e-mail, phone calls or print.
Not only would this help direct the executive branch’s decisions, but this constant student feedback would help the senate and assembly representatives represent their constituents better, said Patrick Reimherr, the Focus party’s presidential candidate.
“We could actually say that 80 percent of engineering students don’t want this (choice made), so you can vote with your constituency, instead of saying, ‘I have this gut feeling,'” he said.
Red Pages
The Focus party wants to educate students about all the opportunities that are available to them, especially programs funded by student fees. To do this, the party wants to publish a U version of the yellow pages, called the Red Pages.
“Every single student is paying student fees, and every single student should receive their benefit from those student fees,” Reimherr said.
The Red Pages would be an A-to-Z guide of internships, scholarships, advising and resources for students. It would also inform students about ASUU and how they can get involved. The Red Pages would contain a calendar and planner, giving students more incentive to hold onto it, said Jon Hayes, the Focus party’s vice-presidential candidate. Student groups would be able to advertise in the Red Pages for free.
The party hopes to pay for the project by selling advertisements to local businesses. The free booklet would be distributed at the beginning of every semester.
Focus also wants to create an online version of the Red Pages. The website would have links that students could navigate to learn more about the opportunities they find in the Red Pages, such as contact information for a student group that catches their interest, said Madison Warren, the Focus party’s candidate for senior class president.
The website would also have a regularly updated event calendar, as well as a downloadable version of Red Pages that students could put on their iPods.
Social issues
Besides informing students about opportunities on campus, the Focus Party also wants to educate the student body about issues outside the classroom, such as sustainability and the U.S. presidential election.
“Our biggest push will really be more and more education about recycling,” Reimherr said.
Although the party says it is committed to sustainability, Reimherr said he cannot promise that any particular initiatives will be completed by the end of his term in office.
“We can’t guarantee that every building will be green, but we can make sure that when these issues are being brought to the table, that we keep a listening ear,” Reimherr said.
The party plans to focus on an increase in sustainability awareness in the residence halls.
The Focus party also plans to educate students about the political process and how they can get involved. Through summer orientations and other rally events, the party wants to encourage students to register to vote and do their part in the upcoming presidential election.
On top of that, they also want to get the U registered as an early voting location to make voting more convenient for students.
“In between classes, if they have a break, instead of (racing around)?they can just do it right on campus,” Hayes said.