This is the second installment of our blog series, “Our Dirty Linen”. Once again, the goal is to be open about areas needing development, to spark a discussion around what we’re doing to address those areas, and then to welcome feedback from all of you on those changes.

The core of any union is to represent its members to a greater extent than the members could have done individually. The UNB Student Union was formed in 1914 to protect and promote student rights in and out of the university. Since it began, the Student Union has grown to host events and provide extensive services to enhance the student experience. I applaud the work of past and present students who’ve developed and coordinated the services in the past; it’s now time to make sure that one of our core reasons for existing - to represent students - can excel to the same extent our services have.

Our Computer Science Councilor, Ash Furrow, recently posted a blog about the barriers to getting involved with the Student Union. Our current structure and way we work may be hurting us more than helping us, and so we’re now looking to fix that. Here are a few things we’ve done to improve how we represent you (feel free to ignore any words that sound boring):

Governance Review

On September 21st, the UNB Student Union Council passed a motion to “strike a committee” to evaluate “effectiveness, representation, and comprehensiveness”. Admittedly, this sounds a little dry. The fact that committees work so formally puts off a lot of people who could be involved with them, but that’s one thing this committee will consider (is that ironic? I’m not sure). In the next few paragraphs, I’ll clear up exactly what the committee is going to look at.

Effectiveness: Is the way we work getting everything done that we want to get done? For example, our Student Union does a lot of work with government at all levels that more students could be excited about. Perhaps we’d be more successful working with government if we had more students mobilized to work on projects they’re passionate about. But one key roadblock is that our structure may not be effective in empowering students so they can do what they want to do.

Representation: Are students’ concerns genuinely being heard and considered? If I’m a first year student, new to campus, or even shy, I may not be comfortable approaching my Faculty Councilor or an Executive Councilor to express my concerns. The committee will investigate how to make it as easy and comfortable as possible for any student to have their voice heard.

Comprehensiveness: Is there something we’re missing? I believe the members presently working for the Student Union are excelling and doing fantastic work in their portfolios, but our concern is that topics and issues might exist outside of those job descriptions. For example, if you have a problem with ITS, there is currently no one specifically responsible for helping you. We need to find the gaps and fill them.

Policy & Research

A good Student Union is a smart Student Union. In July, Council voted to hire a new employee responsible for policy and research. This person amplifies our ability to address student needs and produce solutions to them. Well defined solutions, or policies, make it dramatically easier to affect change when working with the administration, government, and more.

Policy helps representation in two ways. First, research will help us when determining how to reshape the Student Union in light of the governance review. Second, in any structured Student Union, research helps us come up with creative answers to best address student concerns.

Consultation & Communication

If you read Our Dirty Linens, Part 1, our communication strategy has seen some dramatic changes this past year. Communications, in turn, is a tool to make sure you can be involved in the process of reshaping the Student Union. Council voted in favour of having at least one first year student sit on this governance review committee to make sure that the disconnect that sometimes exists between early and later students is acknowledged. The committee will be working to host extensive consultations on campus, so we gladly invite you to help your Student Union by sharing your thoughts and plans.

This is just the beginning of an exciting academic year. With improved communications and internal changes, we’ve working to become a better vehicle for you to make the change you want to see. Want to get involved? Just let us know! Feedback is both welcomed and encouraged.

Take care,
_
Jon O’Kane
President – UNB Student Union
Phone: 506.452.6091
Twitter: UNBSU_Jon

If you’re interested in what the Student Union does, or some of the challenges that go along with working for the union, check out the Union Update in the opinion section of the Brunswickan this week: What does the UNBSU do, you ask?

–
Ryan Brideau
VP External - UNB Student Union
Phone: 506-458-7164
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UNBSU_Brideau

September is here, and with it classes will begin and students will be challenged academically, emotionally, physically, spiritually, etc. University is a great opportunity to expand your thinking and to gain intellectual knowledge and practical experience. As a student you will be stretched, your values will grow and change, your interactions with peers will adapt, and you will come out of your degree a different person than you were when you began. The life experiences you gain this year are invaluable, but in the making they often present you with challenges and adversity. There are countless services, events, and groups on campus that can help you on this journey of self-discovery.

Last February during the election I advertised my candidacy with posters branded by Knowledge = Opportunity, I know UNB. I said that I could help students to take advantage of the opportunites which exist for them at UNB as a direct result of the tuition and fees that they pay each semester. I want to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to sieze the opportunities afforded to you as students at UNB.

On a very personal note, I have changed since coming to UNB. I grew up in a very conservative Christian household, and I came to university with some very firm, but unquestioned beliefs. My experiences here with different student groups have given me the opportunity to explore what I believe and to develop those rigid beliefs into personal statements of faith.

This year as you continue exploring who you are and who you will be, challenge yourself to sieze the opportunities.

o Become a member of the SCUBA or Rock & Ice Climbing Club and learn a new activity
o Audition for a dramatic production with Theatre UNB
o Attend a cultural night hosted by one of the cultural groups
o Participate in career counselling to help ensure that you are pursuing your optimal career path
o Volunteer with the Best Buddies program and invest in another human being

… And don’t be afraid to ask for help

o Take advantage of the free private tutoring offered by the Math Help Centre
o Visit the student health centre when the need arises
o Take part in the stress management workshops put on by Counselling Services
o See your Academic Advisor for guidance when your semester is just too overwhelming

Maximize your experience at UNB. Let these siezed opportunities shape you. Educate yourself about your options at UNB because knowledge really does equal opportunity.

–
Shannon Carmont-McKinley
SU VP Academic 2009-2010
Senator

Welcome to Part 1 of a blog series that we’ll be calling “Our Dirty Linen.” The idea is simple: we admit to areas we haven’t been doing so well in in the past, we talk about some of the ideas we have for moving forward, and you give us feedback to guide this process.

The first of this series is on communications – the backbone of any well-functioning student union. In the past, the UNB Student Union hasn’t been outstanding in this area. We’ve used expensive full-page ads in the Brunswickan, have been a footnote in the Student e-News, had a generally ineffective website, little-to-no branding, and though our meetings are open to any Student Union member, participation has been less than spectacular.

This year, we’re hoping to change that.

One of the things we have been working hard on this Summer has been a communications strategy overhaul, which has resulted in a lot of big changes to how we go about communicating with our constituents. The following are some highlights.

The Student Union Street Team

This year, we are hiring a team of enthusiastic individuals to do something that is almost revolutionary in Student Union terms: they’ll actually interact with people. It sounds crazy, I know, but it just might work. This team of people will take it upon themselves to find creative and innovative ways to get the word out about what’s happening on campus, so keep and eye out for them.

Consistent Branding

In the past, every poster we put up looked different, and as a result, it was hard to tell which events were being hosted by which organization, making it hard to know where to look for more information. This year, we are looking to have consistent branding across the board for the Student Union, so if you see something that looks like a Student Union event, you’ll know you can check our website to find out more about it.

Student Union Newsletter

Currently, in order to contact all of our constituents we must submit a request to the Student e-News, where we are featured at the bottom of an e-mail that many students simply delete. We think that needs to change. We have been working this summer to get the rights to send out a newsletter that will allow us to notify you of upcoming events, contests, services and issues that are directly related to you, in a format that is more interactive and pleasing to read than what is currently available.

Our New Website

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our new website, take a second to give it a glance. We have re-thought, re-written and re-everything’d this new website to be as functional and pleasing to the eye as possible. We’ve also integrated various forms of social media such as our blog, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube into the pages to make it more interactive than ever before, and have included Google Calenders so that you can sync our events to your Smart devices.

Though we think that the new unb.ca website is great for prospective students, we designed ours with current students in mind. If there is a section of the UNB website that is relevant to students already at the school, we’ve tried our best to link to it from ours. Furthermore, we’ve included links to your e-Services, Blackboard and Webmail at the top of our site so that it can act as a great default homepage for your browser (in fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I think this should be the default page for every browser on campus).

Social Media

As previously mentioned, we’ve started integrating social media into our communications plan as much as possible. The executive and a few councilors can already be found on Twitter, and we’ll be making major announcements via our UNB Student Union Facebook Fan page and Twitter account. The very page you are reading is our executive blog, where we intend to keep you up to date with the happenings of the Union during the year. We’ve also created a Communications Director position to replace our Multimedia Coordinator position we’ve had in previous years. Beyond doing poster design, the Communications Director will also be helping us make sure that our communications strategy is being rolled out smoothly, and that we are ahead of the curve with new methods of interaction.

Other Ideas

Currently in the works are a few other ideas, such as a Student Union radio show on CHSR, open and public forums for discussion of current student issues, public meetings to discuss possible directions for Student Union advocacy, and other seedlings of ideas that have yet to come to full fruition.

As always, we are open to feedback about ways to improve how we do what we do. If you have an idea or suggestion, or if you disagree with an aspect of the approach we are taking, let us know and we’ll do our best work your ideas into our strategy.

All the best,
–
Ryan Brideau
VP External - UNB Student Union
Phone: 506-458-7164
Twitter: twitter.com/UNBSU_Brideau

So, bottled water, eh? Well I’ll kick off the dialog (keyword dialog, not necessarily debate; let’s be open minded here) with a few of my thoughts on the topic, and you can feel free to chime in with yours. This is by no means extensive, but it’s a start.

Some of my main beefs with bottled water are as follows:

o The fact that we are willing to buy water in bottles blows my mind. The geniuses who first made water into a commodity are also likely keeping the wool industry afloat, as they have seemingly pulled it over the eyes of the collective free world.

o Shipping water from Évian-les-Bains, France, to drink in Canada, is also a marketing wonder. When you consider the amount of energy it takes to produce bottled water and then ship it, it’s pretty ridiculous. Check out this article in the Economist.

o Does our water really taste all that bad? Having got giardiasis last summer from tainted water in Ghana, I guess my standards are a bit lower than most, but I’m still convinced that most of it is psychosomatic.

o The plastic issue: sure, it’s an issue, but it’s not one that has personally turned me against bottled water in particular. For the sake of focus, I’ll keep my sights on water as a commodity.

My current thoughts on an approach we could take (which is very much open to change if you convince me):

o Inform people of the issues regarding bottled water.

o Provide refillable stainless steel canteens at little to no cost.

o Support the initiative in any other way we can, and let people decide for themselves.

Thoughts?
–
Ryan Brideau
VP External - UNB Student Union