NISG Accountability, Accessibility, and Transparency

The Northern Iowa Student Government is here for one primary reason--to serve UNI students. Despite all the funding of student organizations, student organization events, and the student advocacy that takes place, we are well aware that many students do not know much about NISG, or do not see the breadth of ways it aids students. If elected, our administration will make it a priority to ensure NISG continues to prioritize effective governance and be a relevant body in the experience of UNI students. This will include allowing ourselves to be held accountable for our actions, being accessible to all students so they can voice their concerns, and transparent so that students can be sure their student government is taking proper action. The following items seek to demonstrate our commitment to these ideas.

Executive Branch Transparency

Since upper and lower cabinet directors put many of NISGs goals into action, we will ask all directors to submit monthly reports outlining what they have been working on. These reports will be posted on the NISG website so students can stay updated and keep their government accountable. Another way to ensure that Lower Cabinet Directors are successfully pursuing their goals is by having them meet in large group meetings with KaLeigh and Alicia. We want to implement these meetings so that lower cabinet directors know that they can use us and each other as resources for any project that they are working on. We also want lower cabinet directors to start packaging materials in a transferrable way so that future directors have helpful tools to guide them in their endeavors. To further promote transparency and accountability, all lower cabinet directors will be asked to hold office hours and respond promptly to student emails. This is in addition to the expectation that upper cabinet directors hold daily office hours and otherwise make themselves regularly available for email, phone, and in-person communication with students.

Senate Transparency
The Northern Iowan has done a commendable job of reporting on and raising questions about NISGs work, including keeping an active Twitter feed of all senate meetings. We will continue to welcome heavy press activity, but also encourage all students to question their representatives even more. In addition, we support the work that is currently being done by Speaker Parker and NISG Webmaster, Adam Shannon, on getting senate meetings available via live stream.

Better Organization and Finance Committee Communication

As part of the NISG funding process, student organizations must send a representative to an Organization and Finance committee meeting, which is a senate standing committee that traditionally meets every Monday evening. However, there are cases in the past where, under extenuating circumstances, Organization and Finance meetings have been cancelled or delayed. This can be stressful for student organizations whose funding has to be postponed, despite submitting their applications in a timely manner. To improve this situation, we will work with next years committee to both better communicate to organizations if a meeting is cancelled/delayed, as well as consider postponing more meetings to later the same week rather than resorting to cancellations. Implementing this would involve increased communication with student organizations via email, phone, and/or text.

Suggestion Box Promotion

After several semesters of setbacks, a NISG Suggestion Box has finally been created and will be placed in Maucker Union by the end of this semester. We plan to heavily promote this tool as it offers an easy way to access student government. We will encourage students to give their suggestions, ask questions, and pose concerns. Responses to the suggestion box questions will be posted on the NISG homepage as they are received. The goal is to increase NISG transparency, accountability, and visibility.

Presidents Column in the Northern Iowan

KaLeigh will continue the tradition of writing regular columns in the Northern Iowan in order to keep the student body aware of the activities of student government, inform them of opportunities, and seek student feedback.

Improvement of NISG Website

We will work with next years webmaster and other appropriate campus resources to redesign and refocus the NISG website, which is currently underutilized. We feel much of this is due to it being somewhat unorganized and confusing. As such, we would want to feature the most sought-after information more prominently on the front page (student organization database, event funding, etc.) Any other information should then be clearly organized and accessible through the fewest clicks possible. In order to maintain our dedication to NISG accountability, accessibility, and transparency, we would also like to list all student government executives, senators, and justices with pictures, biographies, and emails. This will make it easier for NISG leaders to be recognized and contacted, thus fostering interaction with constituents. Other ideas we would like to consider are video tutorials on how to do student organization funding, an FAQ page, and photos featuring our successful student organizations in action.

Building a Relationship with the New UNI President

Developing a strong working relationship with the Universitys president is vital to keeping student input at the forefront of University discussions and decisions. KaLeigh and Alicia have built a strong relationship with President Ben Allen and will work to continue such a relationship with the new president, William Ruud. Since Dr. Ruud has been selected before KaLeighs current term as vice president and Alicias current term as Director of Diversity Student Life ends, they have already begun building a relationship with the new president. Thus, if elected, KaLeigh and Alicia will be in the optimal position to create an alliance between student government and the presidents cabinet. This will grant KaLeigh and Alicia the ability keep student needs at the front of the administrations minds and ultimately accomplish more of the initiatives you would like to see implemented on UNIs campus.

Freshmen Involvement
Though freshmen have traditionally only played a minor role in NISG, we would like to increase freshman participation in order to give them valuable early leadership experience that will carry with them the rest of their college careers. To catalyze this involvement, we will advertise the opportunities available, including serving on one of the three NISG standing committees or one of several university committees. Specifically, we will put up posters and submit a Union monitor slide letting freshman know how they can be involved, as well as talk with Cornerstone professors about encouraging freshman to apply for these committees. In addition, we would like to explore the creation of the Freshman Forum. The purpose of this forum would be to allow freshman with leadership potential to gain experience working with other members of student government, as well as voice their opinions on how to improve the first-year experience at UNI. Similarly to other NISG committees, we will use various means to advertise this opportunity; including asking Cornerstone professors to recommend students to apply that appear to have leadership potential. We envision this committee to consist of eight to twelve freshmen who will meet monthly with both of Alicia and KaLeigh, as well as various upper and lower cabinet directors and senators. The group will together to discuss issues that affect UNI freshmen and strategize ways to solve these issues. If appropriate, freshman members can have the opportunity to assist NISG upper and lower cabinet directors in putting the solutions into action.

The NISG Strategic Plan

KaLeigh implemented the beginning stages of the NISG Strategic Plan over the past year. The plan was created to make the transitioning process easier from one administration to the next. The plan will ultimately make NISG more effective by preventing progress and ideas from being lost in transition. Several of the initiatives NISG undertakes require ongoing attention over multiple years to achieve their full potential. KaLeigh and Alicia will maintain and expand the NISG Strategic plan because we believe it will ultimately improve the services NISG provides to you.

 First, each executive and lower cabinet director will be asked to maintain accurate and detailed records of their work for their successor to use in the transitioning process each year. This will help to minimize the learning curve that is experienced by each new administration. Secondly, we will ask each lower cabinet and upper cabinet director to write a welcome letter to their successors describing where they left off in their work, words of encouragement, and tips for success. The idea is that this letter will offer the new director the confidence and basic knowledge needed to hit the ground running in their position.

Large Calendar of Events in Union

The Maucker Union Advisory Board has explored various ways that there could be a large calendar of events posted in the main floor of the Union, including via white board, chalk board, or LCD screen. As president, KaLeigh will serve on the Maucker Board and continue this conversation so that students can stay better informed about the many events and activities that UNI has to offer. This would additionally give student organizations more publicity for the excellent events they plan and execute.

General Campus Life

We believe that the time a student spends on campus should be a positive experience. Knowing that UNI students are busy, we will prioritize making campus life as safe and stress-free as possible so they can focus on what is really important to their day.

Cheaper and Healthier Meal Options in the Union

Jordan and KaLeigh have met with the Maucker Unions Food Service Manager, Carolyn Young, about offering more affordable healthy meal options in the Maucker Union. Jordan and KaLeighs Director of Campus Activities and Outreach, in conjunction with Carolyn, is currently developing a survey to establish which healthy options students would like most. Once the survey results are gathered, Carolyn will use them to determine which healthy meal combos can be offered. This is similar to current sandwich and fries combo offered at Flares. KaLeigh and Alicia will see these healthy meal combos into completion should they not be fully implemented this year. We will also maintain communication with Carolyn after the combos are implemented regarding the success of each combo. That way we will be able to ensure that the students are satisfied with healthy options and continue to minimize the cost for students.

23rd Street Traffic Safety

Conversations began this year concerning the safety hazards of crossing 23rd street. Traffic on 23rd street traffic has become increasingly dangerous during prime hours as students go from central campus to Campbell, the Towers Center, and commuter parking lots. The amount of students crossing the street with such few measures to slow down traffic is a safety issue that needs to be addressed.

 Following the discussions with public safety, communication was made with the city of Cedar Falls about the safety concerns. The city is open to adding additional signage (i.e. another stop sign, pedestrian lights, etc.) but funding for the signage is not expected to be placed in the budget for another few years. Thus, we will maintain constant communication with Public Safety and work in conjunction with the city of Cedar Falls to slow down traffic and reduce the risk to students crossing the street as soon as possible. Some students have also raised safety concerns about the intersection of Panther Lane and University Avenue. We would like to work with Public Safety and the city of Cedar Falls to explore a pedestrian crosswalk being placed at this intersection.

Extended Commuter Parking

Jordan and KaLeigh began conversations this year regarding extended parking lot hours for commuters. From these conversations, several concerns were raised about the logistics of increasing these hours. An issue arose during these discussions regarding a lack of funding for the needed increase of surveillance over the parking lots should the parking hours be extended. In addition, snow removal becomes a concern if the lots are not cleared of vehicles each night. Despite these challenges, Public Safety Director, Helen Haire, has been very receptive to finding a way to offer commuters extended parking hours. We will continue working with Public Safety to implement an extended parking option for commuters because many students find themselves needing to be on campus past 1:00 a.m. without any convenient parking options. We hope to rectify this situation so that all students can utilize campus resources and study spaces.

Panther Shuttle Expansion

Jordan and KaLeigh began communication this year with MET Transit about adding a later run of the Panther Shuttle. The hope is that this late night run would better accommodate UNI students who are enrolled in night classes or simply need to be on campus past 5 p.m., when the shuttle currently does its last route each day. The current conversations focus on adding a single 9 p.m. run of the Panther Shuttle on evenings when night classes are typically held. Over the course of this year, there have been several financial roadblocks encountered but we would like to continue to push for expansion of the shuttle on the grounds that it would greatly benefit students. Alicia and KaLeigh plan to further examine possible funding sources to fund the shuttle expansion, including taking advantage of the unused ad space on the Panther Shuttle. Another option is apply for additional funding from the Student Services Fee to the late night run. The expansion of the Panther Shuttle is not a small goal and we will certainly encounter more barriers in trying to make it happen, but we will continue to fight for the shuttles expansion.

Incentive to Purchase Dining Dollars

Jordan and KaLeigh have already opened lines of communication with the Department of Residence on this issue, and we would like to continue working to set up a program that incentivizes the purchase of dining dollars. This would be done by giving additional dining dollars to students who buy a particular amount of dining dollars in order to reward them for their purchase. This program would be mutually beneficial for the DOR and for UNI students because it would ensure that more students buy food on campus, and also give students additional funds to spend any place where dining dollars are accepted.

Service Organizations
KaLeigh currently serves as the Days of Service committee chair with Service and Leadership Programs in the Student Involvement Center. In this position she has been heavily involved in the organization of Martin Luther King Day of Service, Make a Difference Day, and National Volunteer Week. From these experiences, KaLeigh has seen the importance of service organizations to the UNI Student Body. The Student Involvement Center also recognizes the importance of these organizations to UNIs campus as they began inviting all service based student organization leaders to a meeting and developed a Coalition of Service Organization. If elected, KaLeigh and Alicia would like to work closely with the Student Involvement Center and this coalition to help theses student organizations collaborate and offer more service opportunities to UNIs students. We believe that these service opportunities help students develop leadership skills and engage students in the Cedar Valley community.

Fraternity & Sorority Life

Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL) is very important to many students and to the University. Recently, the Fraternity and Sorority community has made great strides in becoming more transparent on campus. Many individuals within the Fraternity and Sorority system are student leaders and are active on campus, but the Fraternity and Sorority system as a whole still seems to appear separate from the rest of the UNI community. One of our goals is to work on the overall transparency of the FSL community and to encourage FSL leaders to use the experience and skills they have developed to cross over into leadership positions in students organizations across campus. We want to do everything possible to encourage Greek organizations to do more student body oriented events as well as include FSL organizations in many NISG sponsored events. The high visibility will help the FSL organizations by allowing for a greater ability to recruit new members, as well as express their true philanthropic values. We will continue to have two lower cabinet positions dedicated to Fraternity and Sorority Life: The Director of Greek Affairs for Fraternities and Sororities. These director positions will act not just as a liaison between NISG and the FSL organizations, but will work to facilitate collaboration between the FSL system and NISG. This way the two groups can work together to further the interests and needs of all students. Additionally, these directors will not just be chosen by our

administration; FSL leaders will be included in the selection of these directors. Therefore, the strongest and most effective people can be selected to act as this link between the FSL organizations and NISG. One event in particular that we want the directors to continue working on is Alcohol Awareness Week. Understanding the importance of this event, we want the directors to be able to include as much of the Fraternity and Sorority Life as possible to fully advocate for the safety of UNI students. Throughout the years the Fraternity and Sorority Life is not one that seems to be attractive to minority students. We want to break down these barriers by showing off the amazing experiences, leadership opportunities, and personal gains that one can experience by becoming a member of a Greek organization. By making both communities transparent, we hope to illuminate the similarities between the two groups in order to gain, not only a better understanding on UNIs campus, but also spark the desire of the groups members to join each others organizations and express their unique perspectives to one another.

Diversity
We think that being inclusive, united, and understanding is the philosophy that should be adopted at UNI with regards to diversity. In the light of being inclusive and united, we believe that events should be put on by collaborating student organizations of different purposes in an effort to bring all students together. We also want the UNI population to be celebratory of their differences and have that drive as their motivation to join together and educate one another in a comfortable atmosphere where a greater sense of understanding can be held.

Disabilities Initiative
We want to form a stronger relationship with representatives in disabilities services and discuss things that we can do to address the needs of students with disabilities. We want to emphasize the importance of the Safety Walk with campus administrators and the Disability Services Office. We would also like to use this time to focus on how we can make areas across campus more accessible. We will work with the Disability Services Office to place way-finding signs that indicate where handicap accessible entrances are throughout campus buildings. Additionally, we will work with the Department of Public Safety to develop a campus map that shows handicap accessible entrances in buildings. This could either be physical maps made available to students during orientation and placed in offices throughout campus or a map added to UNIs website. We will also explore funding options for student organizations to provide services like sign language interpreters for the hearing impaired and handicap accessible transportation at their events. Finally, we would like to help any students who may need to connect with disability services find the resources they need.

Veterans Affairs
Over the past year, there has been a lot of progress made in terms of veterans affairs on UNIs campus. A full time staff member was implemented with the creation of the Veteran and Military Student Services Coordinator. Additionally, the creation and expansion of a Veterans Center on campus has been extremely beneficial to the veteran and military students at UNI. In light of this progress, KaLeigh and Alicia would like to continue advocating for the creation of a permanent and easily accessible veterans center on UNIs campus. Our military students have unique concerns (i.e. GI Bill assistance) that need to be given proper attention. To help support our veteran and military students, we will also maintain the lower cabinet Director of Military, Veteran, and Non-traditional Students Affairs.

Multicultural Awareness
We have many active multicultural student organizations that put on programs aimed toward educating and raising awareness for particular populations. Our hope is that, while supporting these groups, we can also encourage the initiation of events focused on unity. We would love to promote student organizations to work together more frequently in the planning and implementing of projects. We believe that events put on by student organizations of different purposes will bring students from all areas of the University together. If elected, we will continue to encourage the usage of the Diversity Matters Fund. This funding was put in place to help organizations come together and host events in unison. We believe by encouraging this collaboration that organizations will have an easier time supporting each others events and less double booking will happen. A goal that Alicia has been working on this year is resurrecting and establishing the Multicultural Student Advisory Board (MSAB). Recognizing that strong goals like this take time and effort, we want to ensure that this is something that successfully happens here at UNI whether or not it is fully completed in Jordan and KaLeigh administration or not. We foresee MSAB having different goals than when it was originally established. We want to target a younger population of UNIs student leaders, so that they can develop MSAB early in their college experience and help it flourish as continuing members. The board would consist of about 10-12 members who will serve as liaisons from their student organizations by expressing the different issues of their respective groups and acting as representatives for their constituents to contact with their concerns. Board members will meet on a regular basis to resolve issues as one entity while also working to ensure that different organizations are supporting each others events and collaborating to expand our perspectives on diversity. Another initiative that Alicia has been working on is a Powerpoint presentation that will be presented at multicultural organizations by the lower cabinet directors of diversity and

international affairs. We feel that there needs to better transparency as to what NISG does and how it operates in regards to funding, hiring of positions, hierarchy within the branches, etc. It is our belief that giving this presentation in the comfort of the student organizations meetings will allow for direct questions to be asked and a stronger line of communication to be opened between constituents and their NISG representatives. We also believe that it will provide an opportunity for members of multicultural organizations to express their interests/concerns with NISG and receive adequate information about different opportunities within NISG.

LGBT Initiatives
One Iowa at UNI, UNI Proud, Transgenda*, and UNIs LGBT community as a whole have been actively engaged in spreading awareness about the issues they face on UNIs campus. A large part of this effort has been focused on the creation of a permanent LGBT Center on campus. Currently, the center is temporarily located in the Purple Pen room in the basement of Maucker Union. While this is a great start up center, KaLeigh and Alicia would like to see a more permanent, accessible, prominent, and versatile center created for UNIs LGBT community. Alicia currently sits on NISGs LGBT Center Exploratory Committee and is in active contact with LGBT student groups on campus. If elected, we will continue to not only support this initiative, but also the other incredible work that our LGBT student groups are doing.

Academics
Faculty Relations
This year KaLeigh was able to secure a seat at the Faculty Senate table whereas in the past, student government was only able to observe from the gallery. This has made it easier for student government to interact with faculty. Additionally, Jordan and KaLeigh began bi-weekly meetings with the Faculty Senate Chair, the Chair of the Faculty, and the President of the Faculty Union. As a result, KaLeigh has established a strong line of communication with the faculty. KaLeigh and Alicia will use this pre-established relationship to continue working with faculty on the issues facing UNI and students in particular.

Awareness of After Hours Study Area

We are aware that finding places to study after midnight on campus is a common concern for students. Given the unlikelihood of significantly increased hours in the Union and Library due to the extra funds required for building operation and staff, we would like to increase awareness of the Towers Center as an afterhours study area. This could include advertising through Union monitor slides, as well as encouraging Union building monitors to alert students to this option who are still studying upon closing time.

Green Initiatives
Were proud that UNI has been named an environmentally-responsible college by The Princeton Reviews Guide to 286 Green Colleges. However, there is always more that can be done, and we would like to continue this trend to help make environmental responsibility even more a part of UNIs culture.

RecycleMania
This is a 10 week recycling challenge program that has participation from colleges and universities throughout the U.S. Each campus competes to improve their recycling and waste prevention efforts. This program is also an engaging way to get students involved with improving campus life. Jordan and KaLeighs Director of Environmental Affairs has solidified plans to offer a condensed version of RecycleMania for Dance Marathon this year, along with a few other smaller recycling projects. The current Director of Environmental Affairs is also optimistic about expanding the project next year and the UNI Director of Sustainability, Eric OBrien, has been very supportive of these efforts. KaLeigh and Alicia will make RecycleMania a priority for next years Director of Environmental Affairs to engage students across campus in the full 10 week program here at UNI.

Across Campus Energy Conservation Campaign

We will continue developing the highly publicized top 10 list of ways to conserve energy which KaLeigh previously composed in her role as Vice President. The Jordan and KaLeigh administration established the list and plans have been confirmed for it to be printed in next years Panther Planner. We will diligently work with our Director of Environmental Affairs to see this project reach an even wider audience.

Reducing Plastic and Styrofoam

After the persistent and hard work of an Honors Think Tank group last year, the Department of Residence implemented reusable clamshells to be used in the Piazzas To Go program. The DOR intends to also expand this project to the Rialto next year. The clamshells program greatly reduces styrofoam and plastic consumption on UNIs campus and thus effectively minimizes the waste our campus produces. KaLeigh and Alicia would like to continue promoting this program and encourage their Director of Environmental Affairs to explore other ways of reducing plastic and Styrofoam usage on UNIs campus.