Successful Student Unions: Essential Qualities and Best Management Practices

Findings: Campus Stakeholders

Methodology

Two lists of campus stakeholders were developed: one list of administrators with ties to the campus center or Lower Sproul and student elected officials, and one list of student groups considered representative of the student population as a whole.

Administrative Stakeholders

The team began with a stakeholder list provided by Barbara Davis, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, which had been compiled for an earlier phase of the university center project. The list was refined through discussion with Elizabeth Gillis, Campus Community Initiative Coordinator, and Kerry O’Banion, Associate Director of Physical and Environmental Planning at Capital Projects. Interview questions (based on the Appreciative Inquiry methodology), were generated (See Appendix 5), and in-person interviews were scheduled with each stakeholder. In a few cases, a group was not able to meet with the team within project timelines; it is advisable to meet with these groups (such as the Cal Band) as the process moves forward. The initial stakeholder list and a list of those actually interviewed is available in Appendix 3.

Student Stakeholders

Of the many student organizations on campus, a sample of twenty-five groups was identified and selected for the survey process. These groups were identified as important and broadly representative of campus by Marcia Riley, Director of Student Group Advising and Special Events in the Office of Student Life. Due to the large number of students involved, a series of round table discussions rather than one-on-one interviews was established for data collection. Each student organization was invited to attend one of these round table sessions via e-mail and follow-up telephone calls. Eight organizations responded to the initial invitation, with an end result of six student interviews (See Appendix 3 for list of student organizations).

In addition to these efforts, team members went to Sproul Plaza during noontime “tabling” in an effort to recruit more students for roundtable discussions, request names of potential student interviewees from administrative stakeholders, and identify potential student interviewees from campus colleagues with high levels of student contact. These further efforts netted an additional three student interviews.

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