Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices

Executive Summary

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

The Leadership Development Program project team was charged with collecting information about the “Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices” of top student unions at peer institutions across the country. (See Appendix 1 for project charter). The team developed criteria for selecting the best student unions and decided on a list of the “Top Five:”

• University of Arizona (Tucson)
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Maryland (College Park)
• University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
• University of Wisconsin—Madison

After visiting each union and conducting interviews with staff and students, the team was able to identify a set of qualities shared between the selected unions and come to some conclusions about their best management practices.

In addition to the team’s survey of top student unions, it also conducted interviews with an extensive list of campus stakeholders (See Appendix 3), including administrative officers, the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) and the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) presidents, other students, tenants and potential tenants. Respondents provided numerous ideas about their visions for the university center, and what would need to change to allow the campus to realize those visions. The team then examined the interview data to determine common themes among the comments received.

The team found that most campus community members do not understand the current management structure for the existing student union. A frequent observation was that the current structure is too “horizontal;” there are too many different people involved, and that no clear authority structure exists. The lack of an integrated organization hampers planning and makes it difficult for users to find and request services. Additionally, the space itself seems underutilized and uninviting.

There is a lack of consistent student programming in our current union. No one seems to have a long-term view of student programming needs or an overarching view of how to effectively utilize the spaces available in the union’s buildings. All Top Five unions have a programming board which is separate from the student government; all but one is student-led.

Revitalizing the university center will require commitment, funding, and consensus. A revived center will require the creation of a well-defined management structure. Student input will be critical, as will support from the chancellor.

Our major recommendations are:

• A clear vision and mission should be developed for the university center before further work is done on design. A decision must be made about what the university center should be; the design and architecture need to be informed by the vision and mission.
• Students must be involved in all phases of planning the new center. Respondents were unanimous in stressing the importance of the university center to student life, and of student input into any successful design.
• The campus should join ACUI. Participating in the ACUI (Association of College Unions International) would allow Cal administrators and students an opportunity to meet peers at universities across the country and get a better idea of their standards and practices.
• Business should be managed by business managers. Students need to have input into the operation of the center and the ability to be a driving force behind the direction the center takes. However, even at UCLA, where the student government has control of the management of the center (and in fact hires the executive director), the student government is not engaged in day-to-day decision-making and financial matters involved in business operations.
• An advisory board or board of directors should be created with a mix of students, faculty, staff and alumni. Student membership should include both graduates and undergraduates, and should be drawn from student government, student programming, and the student body at large.
• The center management should report to a high-level position. It should report directly to the chancellor, or at least to the vice chancellor of Student Affairs, as opposed to an assistant vice chancellor or to Business and Administrative Services (BAS).

See the Recommendations section for a complete list of recommendations.

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