Margaret BauerStudent Union has advised that the Freshman Class Council undergo mentoring sessions and additional supervision in response to a dearth of programming last semester.
The council, a slate of five Student Union officers elected to represent Washington University’s class of 2008, has been unresponsive to business contact and has failed to attend meetings organized to discuss their lack of programming.
The Freshman Class Council (FCC) is responsible for organizing class-wide events and manage Student Union funds allocated for that purpose.
Student Union Vice President Pamela Bookbinder, a junior, acknowledged that FCC members had missed previous meetings of the Joint Class Council, a group composed of all four class councils. Bookbinder, whose responsibilities as Student Union vice president include chairing the Joint Class Council, explained that she now meets with the FCC separately before Joint Class Council meetings to provide them with more direct supervision.
Senate Speaker Marc Bridge, a senior, described a feeling of “general frustration” with the situation.
“I think it’s disappointing that the freshman class hasn’t had the chance to experience the quality programming that other classes have had available to them,” said Bridge.
Since being elected in October 2004, the FCC has organized one activity for the class of 2008, a rock-climbing event last fall that was co-sponsored with the Junior Class Council. Although the FCC has contributed to Joint Class Council events, such as Red Alert functions, it has yet to sponsor an event independent of other class councils.
“When you first get elected freshman year, there’s a lot of stuff to figure out. There’s a lot of stuff that coming in as a freshman you don’t know about,” said Freshman Class Internal Vice President Stephanie Purisch. “By this point we really know what’s going on. That was the biggest thing last semester, coming in, not knowing all the ins and outs of how Student Union worked. It should be a lot better this semester.”
Bill Woodward, faculty advisor to the FCC, has served as an advisor to several freshman councils in previous years, and he acknowledged that this year’s group had been slower to take advantage of the support structure offered to them.
“It’s not typical to have had really one program,” said Woodward.
He explained that both he and members of the Joint Class Council work actively to help freshman executives learn how to navigate the event-planning bureaucracy.
“People are looking for them to be more accountable than they had been,” said Woodward.
This year’s FCC has had a number of planned events cancelled or delayed due to unanticipated difficulties. In the fall they were forced to scrap plans for a class poker night upon realizing that cash prizes violate Student Union policy. Plans for a cash giveaway-in which students were to pop balloons and keep any cash inside-fell through for the same reason.
“There’s been a structure in place to have class councils learn,” said Bridge, describing the series of people available to give advice on planning to freshman leaders. “They have people who are willing to talk to them, and it’s disappointing that they haven’t taken advantage of that.”
In fact, all four class councils planned to meet for a mentoring session last semester-presidents with presidents, secretaries with secretaries, etc. None of the freshman officers showed up.
“The purpose of the mentoring session was to have all the people in one position come together and tell the freshmen what they were supposed to do,” said Sophomore Class Treasurer Jason Lewis. “They did not show up to the meeting.”
Several of the freshmen denied knowledge of the meeting.
“I don’t even know what that was, so I feel like maybe we were not well informed about it,” said Purisch.
Freshman Class President Yisrael Katz also said he was unaware of the meeting, although Bookbinder had sent multiple reminders via e-mail and spoken to several FCC members in person.
Yet even as they acknowledged the situation, both Bookbinder and Woodward avoided making a negative assessment of the FCC.
Woodward said that if the freshmen planned more events for the spring in addition to the one they planned in the fall, he would find their work acceptable.
Freshmen council members say they’ve mastered the learning curve and are deep into planning events for this semester.
“This semester we are having a ton of stuff,” said Purisch. She mentioned a ski trip next week, a Final Four basketball party in Ursa’s and efforts to plan a mixer with St. Louis University students. “We now have a cabinet with committees, so things are getting done a lot more.”