ASUO President Nilda Brooklyn adds her thoughts to a meeting in the Multicultural Center as she reads over some papers.
Newly elected ASUO Executive Nilda Brooklyn and Joy Nair have only been on the job since June, but according to one seasoned member of the ASUO, the pair are already off to a stronger start on accomplishing their goals for the year than previous student government leaders.
Jennifer Creighton, the ASUO accounting coordinator, has worked in student government for the past five years. She said Brooklyn and Nair have strengths that other leaders have lacked at times, such as the ability to work well together and with their staff.
And in the first few months of their term, the two women have been setting goals and working to achieve them, she said.
“They’re making pretty good progress, really, compared to other executives,” Creighton said.
Brooklyn said she and Nair are developing specific priorities to accomplish the goals they set during their campaign.
One of these is what Brooklyn calls “ASUO outreach” — connecting student government more directly with students on campus and members of the community, a communication gap that many past executives pledged to bridge but then plagued them when they made it into office.
While the term “outreach” may seem vague, she said, she and Nair are trying to put it into action by organizing events that will make students more aware of the ASUO’s presence on campus.
For example, she said, staff members are planning a fall movie series and are working to increase publicity about student government.
“We’re looking for some ways to let the campus know we’re here,” she said.
The office now has a new brochure, and the old Web site is under construction to reflect the new leaders, Nair said. When the site is finished, students will be able to post any criticisms they have about student government, which Nair and Brooklyn have pledged they will respond to.
Another way they hope to increase student awareness, she said, is by posting course descriptions and evaluations on Duck Web. They also hope to post the Zero Awards, a list of University departments with no tenured faculty members of color.
The allocation of student fees, a focus of Brooklyn and Nair’s campaign, also continues to be a priority for the new executive.
This summer, Nair worked with Creighton and former Programs Finance Committee chairwoman Mary Elizabeth Madden to change how summer fee money is used. Unlike incidental fees collected in other terms, summer fees go into administrative funds, rather than to the ASUO as they are intended for, Nair said.
“Pretty much, the administrative had total control” over student fee money, she said. “We’re taking that back into students’ hands.”
Creighton added that they are looking into balancing student fees more evenly over the four terms — right now, she said, higher student fees during fall, winter, and spring end up paying for student services over the summer.
Putting students in control of how incidental fee money is spent is also a top priority for Brooklyn, who is working to reinstate Cultural Forum Director Linda Dievendorf. EMU administrators terminated Dievendorf’s contract last spring after she had worked for the University for 21 years.
Although the immediate goal is to get Dievendorf’s job back, Brooklyn said the larger issue involved is allowing students, rather than administrators, to decide what positions will be funded with their incidental fee money.
Steve Sawada, last year’s regional music coordinator for the Cultural Forum, said without Brooklyn, it would have been difficult to organize support for Dievendorf in the coming year.
Sawada, who is graduating from the University this summer, said that like him, nearly all the students who worked in the Cultural Forum last year will be gone by the end of the summer. But because Brooklyn was there to take charge of the issue when former President Jay Breslow ended his term, there will already be someone to lead student activism next year.
“Nilda basically spearheaded this,” he said. “She’s been very supportive and helpful.”
He added that he is appreciative of student government efforts to educate students on how their student fees are used, because, he said, it is an issue “the whole campus should understand.”
But while outreach and student fees are two of Brooklyn and Nair’s most well-known goals, those are only part of their plans for student government.
“We want to do so much,” Nair said.
To accomplish this, she said, they often work separately on projects with a team of staff members.
Nair, for example, is working with the student diversity coordinator for University enrollment services to find ways to retain more faculty and students of color on campus.
Brooklyn is looking into updating the University’s multicultural requirement to include a broader range of classes that can fulfill it. In particular, she said, she would like to see classes that include a “social justice” element.
And over the year, Brooklyn said, she and Nair have plans for several large office campaigns, including one focusing on educating students about rental and housing options, and one concentrating on energy and conservation.
Whatever the year brings, Brooklyn said she is optimistic that she and Nair will succeed in accomplishing what they set out to do when they were elected.
“This one of the funnest jobs I’ve ever had,” she said. “And I’m so excited for next year.”