Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices

Introduction

Recently, there has been much conversation across the Berkeley campus about the desire to create a thriving university center, one that would generate a sense of community on campus by providing space, programming, and service delivery to bring diverse elements of the campus together.

Towards that end, Chancellor Robert Berdahl charged the Campus Community Initiative (CCI) with identifying the best management practices employed in student unions at universities across the nation with an eye towards using this information to position and manage a new and vibrant university center on the Berkeley campus.

In June 2003, campus sponsors Vice Provost Christina Maslach, Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla, and Assistant Vice Chancellor Steve Lustig, in concert with the CCI, presented a project proposal to Berkeley’s Leadership Development Program. Entitled “Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices,” this project is intended to augment several other studies addressing issues of design and student services provision with regard to a university center on the Berkeley campus.

In addition to identifying best practices at peer institutions across the country, the project team interviewed a cross-section of campus stakeholders to discover their visions for a university center that would enhance a sense of community at Cal.

This report presents the results, findings, and recommendations of the Leadership Development Program project team’s efforts.

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