What’s in the works in the Student Government office right now
As the school year is moving along, Student Body President Mason Rademacher and Student Body Vice President Joseph Vollmer are working on plans that affect the student body at North Dakota State University.
Rademacher and Vollmer created a three-point platform which consists of organizational, educational and career recuperation levels while running for Student Body President and Vice President last year. While the platform is being worked on, there are also other projects that the two are working on currently as well.
Rademacher first discussed aspects that have arisen since the start of the school year which they didn’t plan for. One of which is the strategic planning process. “NDSU is currently in the process of reviewing its strategic plan from 2020 to 2025,” Rademacher said. “Both myself and Joe have the unique opportunity to serve on the executive committee of that planning process as well as on two different working groups to help establish different goals that should be set out for this university to accomplish.” Rademacher talked about the many perspectives that are coming together as deans, students, department chairs and associate professors are able to share their viewpoints concerning what they think NDSU should look like in the future.
Another committee Rademacher and Vollmer are involved in is the Presidents Counsel on Campus Well-being (PCCW). Both Rademacher and Vollmer serve on the executive committee of the PCCW as well. Rademacher further described what the purpose of the PCCW is. “It has an overall focus of essentially the well-being for NDSU as a university as a whole.”
Along with the PCCW, they also co-chair a student involvement group that focuses mainly on student involvement. The group asks the question of how they can get more students involved on campus and thus in the community.
With these committees, Rademacher and Vollmer are also working on the Congress of Student Organizations (CSO) Guidelines and the finances which are both up for review. “There’s been legwork going into initial thoughts on how we can improve those to better serve our student organizations,” Rademacher stated.
The work they are doing with the strategic planning, PCCW, and CSO Guidelines fits into the organizational category of their platform. “I think that a lot of what we’re doing already and things that we didn’t necessarily run on will have an effect on our student organizations.” Rademacher also expanded on the group that they get to co-chair. “The working group that Joe and I have the opportunity to co-chair focuses on student engagement and involvement. I think that is a phenomenal opportunity where we can kind of reflect internally on how we can strengthen what our students have here at NDSU, what are students are involved in and the opportunities that they have.”
Rademacher then talked about how they are helping the student organizations at NDSU. “One thing that I know we specifically ran on was providing more opportunities for our student leaders within our student organizations through developmental opportunities from student government.” Rademacher described the developmental opportunities being offered to student leaders in organizations as leadership seminars. “Something along those lines where we as a Student Government do a better job to help foster growth within these organizations. I think that’s something that we’re building up the game plan for right now so we can roll it out as the semester moves along.”
One more topic Rademacher focused on was with the facility disagreements. “Another major thing that Joe and I touched on when we ran was the facility disagreements. There’s a working group on campus right now that’s been in the process of reviewing it and I’ve been in contact with a couple of those members to see how that process is moving. If we can come to a solution where it’s easier for students to utilize the facilities, then that’s a win.”
Regarding the student body as a whole, Rademacher reflected on how their current work relates to the student body. “The SPC (Strategic Planning Committee) and PCCW I think are two major areas where the student body can be affected not only for this year, but moving forward. We’re really trying to set up a strong base so then there’s something to launch off of moving forward.”
Another impact on the student body is the enrollment rate drops. Rademacher discussed how Student Government is dealing with the rate drops and how they can help the student body in case tuition is raised. “The enrollment decline is something that’s happening regionally and nationally right now. NDSU is in a situation, but we’re not alone in it. I think when I look at what we can do as a Student Government, the biggest thing is to ensure fiscal responsibility with the budgets that we oversee. Student Government has the opportunity to oversee just shy of about $4 million every year. We take in the student activity fees and we appropriate it to different organizations.”
Within these organizations there are nine tier one organizations that consist of athletics, performing arts, The Union, The Spectrum, BIN, My NDSU, campus attractions, Student Government and rec/intramurals. All these organizations get a portion of the student activity money. What’s left goes to the tier two organizations which are organizations that anybody can join.
“When we see an enrollment decline that we’re seeing right now that tells me that from a student government standpoint we need to become extremely fiscally sharp. The practices that have been going on at a Student Government level in terms of overseeing the student activity fee in the perspective that they’ve been using work great, but as times change our perspective needs to change as well.”
Though the tuition rates are set at a university level, Rademacher gave some insight on how that may affect the students. “What impacts students, even more, are the fees that are associated with attending NDSU through those different student fees. One of the biggest being the student activity fee.”
Though this work also stands outside of the platform they created, its work that still needs to be completed.”That’s our major focus that is outside of our platform that we think can impact students because we really want our budgets to be sharp and to really adjust accordingly to the different times that we’re facing right now so that we can still succeed.”