Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices

Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices

Sponsors: Vice Provost Christina Maslach, Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla, Assistant Vice Chancellor Steve Lustig

Project Facilitation: Elizabeth Gillis, Coordinator, Campus Community Initiative

Background

Over the past few years, there has been increasing interest and discussion on the Berkeley campus about re-creating an active campus center that would also be home to a lively student union. This campus center would be the locus for enhancing a sense of community at Cal, embracing the diversity of the populations within the campus community through cultural programs and entertainment, providing a common meeting ground for all populations on campus, celebrating and enlivening the intellectual dialogue through increased open venues, and centralizing some key support services for students.

Because UC Berkeley has limited land for building new structures, the current campus boundaries will need to provide the space for this endeavor. In terms of physical space, this may represent one large complex, or a central complex with outlying hubs across campus, or an option not yet considered. This is a unique and challenging prospect for the campus, one in which success will be measured by extraordinary vision and creative solutions to organizational needs.

In order to continue the momentum toward this vision, the Chancellor has charged the Campus Community Initiative with clarifying best practices in managing centers such as this on other campuses. He has asked the CCI to recommend a plan for positioning and managing an active center at Berkeley so that it can contribute to the ongoing life of the campus and be an integrated piece of the university's mission. The LDP project team report on “Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices” will be presented to the Chancellor and incorporated in the planning efforts under way to realize this vision.

Scope

1. Discovery
   The LDP members will work with the LDP program coordinator and others to identify the top 5 student unions at comparable universities across the country.
2. Research and Analysis
   1. Top 5 Unions Survey
      Each of these student unions will be surveyed using mechanisms and tools created by the group to discover:
      • management practices and models
      • funding sources (internal and external)
      • components contained within the student union (e.g., advising, study lounges, computer access, visitor centers, places to buy and enjoy meals)
      • physical space and organization
      • benchmarking practices (measurements of usage patterns, fiscal viability, change mechanisms)
   2. Stakeholder Interviews
      In addition to research on the top 5 student unions, interviews with a cross-section of campus stakeholders will be conducted using a questionnaire developed by the LDP team based on a methodology called Appreciative Inquiry. These interviews will be focused on the vision these stakeholders have for the creation of a new student union/active campus center that would enhance the community at Cal, and elicit perspectives on how to best manage such an endeavor at Berkeley. Background materials, training and support for learning the Appreciative Inquiry approach will be provided to the group.
   3. Report
      A report of the methods used by the group, a summary of findings on the above research categories—including commonalities, striking differences, lessons learned—and recommendations to the Berkeley campus based on those findings will be vetted with the sponsors, then presented to the entire LDP program, the sponsors and guests, and the Chancellor.

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