Best Student Government
Public Colleges & Universities

Winner: University of Central Florida
Runner-Up: University of South Florida

Winner
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida’s Student Government Association is all about giving students a free ride, and its administration is still going strong after being a Florida Leader  “Best Student Government” finalist four of the last five years and winner last year. As the steward of students’ activity and service fees, this SGA offers many tangible services that the student body appreciates.

First stop on the gravy train is SGA’s copy/computer center, which is “one of the best labs on campus,” says Brian Margolis, SGA’s director of communications. It’s the only one to offer free printing in addition to free local faxing, low-cost poster printing, and the use of office supplies.

Next stop is free admission to Knightstock Volume II, which began last year with the first Knightstock, a festival with performances by Sister Hazel, Cowboy Mouth, Big-10-4, Average Joe, Tom Sartori, and Isle 7. More than 3,000 students partied ‘til midnight while receiving free items from vendors such as posters and henna tattoos.

Another freebie for UCF students is the SGA-sponsored SafeRide, which provides a complimentary cab ride home after a night of partying. The service is so popular that nearly 600 students regularly opt for a SafeRide.

One of SGA’s strengths is representing students well, which they do extremely well through the Multi-Cultural Student Center. “Through programming and outreach, the MSC encourages students to unite, socialize, and disseminate information,” Margolis says. “Its main goal is to make UCF a more diverse and inclusive institution.” Events include Hispanic Awareness Month, hosted by the Hispanic-American Student Association, and Hip Hop Showcase, hosted by the Hip Hop Culture Group. MSC Expo is an annual event that provides an opportunity for clubs and organizations to come together and share information. Furthermore, the Caribbean Students Association’s Freshman Friends Mentoring Program pairs newbies with older students to provide support and guidance during the students’ freshman year.

Communication is key to any successful organization, and SGA has a process to ensure that. Beyond the common three branches of government—executive, legislative, and judicial—the executive branch comprises five different units: Fiscal, Governmental Affairs, Campus Life, Student Advocacy, and Communications. Each unit has a chair who meets with the SGA vice president every Monday morning to report on progress and goals of each unit. In addition, an entire cabinet meeting is held once a month. “The internal communication of SGA plays an important role in creating consistent, successful programs and services for the student body,” Margolis says.

Beyond its own ranks, SGA maintains a strong relationship with the university administration. “Keeping a strong relationship with the administration has been most beneficial for the SGA this past semester,” Margolis says. SGA holds monthly “Meet and Greets” along with joint open forums with the Student Advocacy Unit and administration. Additionally, the SGA VP meets with the campus provost, VP of finance, VP of student development and enrollment, and associate VP of campus life on a monthly basis and meets weekly with the assistant VP of campus life. SGA also maintains a presence on all university committees.

SGA’s online presence is commendable but incomplete. SGA maintains a slick, clean Web site that provides contact info for every member, documents and rules, and even current and archived news and events. It also provides a link to an archive of SGA’s newsletter, Knightline, though no issues were archived at press time. SGA distributes the newsletter through The Orlando Sentinel, which is distributed free to students through its readership program. Meeting agendas and minutes can’t be found either—a glaring omission. But a legislative log is available, organized by bill number with comments and voting status.

For any top SG these days, having a less-than-stellar Web site is just unacceptable. This is 2005, and the Web’s been around for more than a decade, spawning site-builder programs that are so user-friendly that they do all the coding for you. While UCF’s site is a worthy contender, providing a full-blown student portal would be best—a complement to all the services and programs that SGA oversees by providing a Web site with links to those things as well as event information and the latest campus and SGA news.

Another area for improvement is voter turnout. At 12 to 15 percent this year, UCF’s turnout is pretty good for a public university, though below the 17 percent achieved last year. “Our current short-term goal is 20 percent turnout in a year,” says SGA President Kevin Peters. SGA uses online voting, which Margolis says boosted voter turnout 13 percent. Getting students out to vote and giving them compelling reasons to do so is always a challenge, but it’s key to becoming a truly representative government.

Nevertheless, SGA has a hand in every area of campus life, and its officers are intent on making it an easy one. “We believe the primary responsibility of SG is to offer the programs and services that the students want,” Peters says. “Our mission is to make SGA a valuable resource for the student body by increasing services to students in the area of campus life, by becoming the students’ voice for concerns, and by creating an environment conducive to learning, mutual respect, individual and collective achievement, acceptance, and understanding.” This SGA thrives on enhancing students’ lives—day and Knight.

Contact SGA at sga_comm@mail.ucf.edu or visit www.sga.ucf.edu.

Runner-Up
University of South Florida
It’s been years since the University of South Florida’s Student Government was recognized as a “Best SG” finalist, being runner-up back in 2001. But this administration is again taking the bull by the horns by offering free rides and services to students—much like UCF.

SG provides shuttle buses from campus to the football stadium downtown for all home games, relieving students from dealing with parking issues. SG also provides a SafeRide program—more and more common among larger schools nowadays. “We found a financial sponsor that pays for charter buses to run a route between campus and Ybor City, which is where students go for bars, restaurants, clubs, shops, and a movie theater,” says Student Body President Bijal Chhadva, who was a Florida Leader “Student of the Year” honorable mention winner last year.

Furthermore, SG also runs a SAFE Team late-night escort service for students to drive them around campus on golf carts at night. “However, we were concerned about the growing number of car thefts and cases of vandalism in parking lots,” Chhadva says. “So we created SAFE Park, which is a team of students on golf carts that patrol parking lots on campus sporadically and at all hours of the day in order to prevent such crimes.”

Also like UCF, USF’s SG runs a copy/computer center, which is “one of the largest and best computer labs on campus,” Chhadva says. It’s housed in the student union with nearly 80 computer stations, black-and-white and color printing, faxing, scanning, CD-burning, poster printing, laminating, and more. The lab also offers workshops on different computer programs. SG Computer Services even has its own Web site with a list of services, a posting of lab hours, an SG tech-support request form, and access to free, seven-day online storage.

A program unique to this SG is their new lobbyist internship program, which sends three or four students to the state capitol for the duration of the legislative session. Each student gets course credit for completing their lobbying work, required reflection papers, and assigned readings. The program is a joint effort of SG, the political science department, and USF’s Office of Legislative Affairs.

To improve things internally, SG created two full-time professional positions to work exclusively with them: an SG advisor and an SG administrative assistant/receptionist—keys to a great SG.

The whole SG team connects with students through a newly created marketing department. “Three people were hired at agency director salaries so we could get better qualified candidates who are likely to keep their jobs longer than a year,” Chhadva says. “They have at least tripled the amount of marketing we have been able to do in the past, but there is still much work to be done with this department.”

A key component of SG's communication is its Web site. USF’s is better than most but still isn’t the student information and services portal that it could and should be. Contact information is available along with documents, agendas, and minutes—though not all are up to date, and some links are dead. It’s a simple design with some text-flow and formatting issues. But it has the look and potential of a portal, providing news and events, links to other university-related sites, and even an online survey—unique among the “Best SG” entries. With a little work, USF’s SG could set the statewide standard for excellence.

Voter turnout was 12 percent last year, augmented by online voting, with a goal of 30 percent this year. “We’re going to increase voter turnout this year because students see SG everywhere because we’ve increased our visibility around campus,” says Student Body Vice President Andrew Aubery.

As students’ become increasingly aware of SG, they’ll continue to discover that this administration is here to serve them, and that’s no bull.

Contact SG at president@sg.usf.edu or visit www.sg.usf.edu.

Copyright © 2006 Oxendine Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved