A check on campaign promises

Arizona Daily Wildcat Rhonda Wilson is sworn in as ASUA president for the 1996-97 academic year in a ceremony outside Old Main on May 1.

But have the current officers of ASUA fulfilled what they promised just less than a year ago? The Arizona Daily Wildcat interviewed the current ASUA officers to determine whether they have successfully implemented the platform issues they were elected on last spring.

Rhonda Wilson

ASUA President Rhonda Wilson promised to improve campus climate, make cost of attendance more affordable and make ASUA work for the students.

"A lot of things I've been doing take time and you won't see the direct result of them while I'm in office, which is the nature of the job," Wilson said.

Many of Wilson's issues have not been implemented but are in progress.

One campus-climate issue Wilson promised during her election was to create a faculty mentoring program. She said she is working on it with the assistant vice provost for undergraduate education, Lynne Tronsdal.

"I want to try to work a program where we can hook up every student with a faculty mentor," Wilson said.

Wilson also wanted to increase funding for the minority resource centers, but found that the funding had already been determined for the academic year. She said she is working on improving funding for next year.

During last year's election, Wilson said she wanted to clarify course-related expenses published in the course catalog. She said she has been working on that with the provost.

"We're trying to pinpoint fees that are not in the catalog and we're trying to get them published in the catalog," she said.

Wilson created a freshman council during her term in office as a way to increase ASUA's grass roots efforts.

She also created a President's Advisory Council to get more feedback from students, as well as a phone number that students can call to voice their concerns about problems or issues on campus.

Erin Russell

Erin Russell, vice president of clubs and organizations, ran on three issues. These issues were communicating with clubs, forming a Club Resource Center and simplifying club funding.

She has reached those goals by implementing two new ideas and improving on an existing one.

Russell created a monthly club newsletter to improve her communication with clubs. Two have been published, for the months of November and December, and sent to club presidents, she said.

The Club Resource Center, located next to Russell's office in ASUA, has poster supplies available and a computer for club members to use.

"It's not a new thing, but the fact that there's things in it and we're actually publicizing it is new," she said.

To simplify requests for funding through the Appropriations Board, Russell added a four-step form to the Student Organization and Adviser Handbook.

"If you're not familiar with the process (of Appropriations Board funding), it can be complicated," she said.

"We've only had one missed time deadline this year, and they didn't look through the packet," Russell said.

Russell said she plans to have a public forum sometime this semester to discuss the future of sport clubs funding.

Russell gave a memorandum to the Department of Campus Recreation last semester that announced ASUA would not consider sport clubs funding using the normal Appropriations Board process.

ASUA will not transfer any money to sport clubs in the future. Russell attributed these actions to the liability associated with sport clubs.

"They have an inherent increased liability over the other clubs," she said.

She said she has been working with the Department of Risk Management and Safety and the university attorney's office on the issue.

Alan Lee, Department of Risk Management and Safety insurance officer, explained liability as something that legally exposes the university. If something were to go wrong beyond the inherent risk of the sport, someone could file a suit against the university.

In the past year, some claims related to sport clubs have been from balls causing damage to cars, he said.

"I believe liability was just one of the factors (for cutting funding). Another factor is the number of funds available," Lee said.

Mindy McCollum

The office of vice president for programs and services, held by Mindy McCollum, oversees ASUA programs and services, including Spring Fling and the Escort Service.

McCollum ran on the promises of expanding marketing strategies for Spring Fling and starting a letter writing campaign to alumni; expanding Escort Services and increasing its fundraising; streamlining ASUA programs and services.

This year, Escort Services added walking escorts. McCollum said the director of Escort Services came up with the idea, but she placed it in her platform because she believed in it.

She said she is reviewing all programs and services to determine if any can be streamlined.

McCollum already began the streamlining by cutting $1,000 from her budget by changing two media relations paid positions to volunteer positions.