Undergraduate Student Government President Mark Naufel speaks to a room of incoming freshman students at the 2012 Fall Welcome Ceremony on Aug. 21. Naufel stressed the importance of getting involved and having school pride. (Photo by Sam Rosenbaum)ASU student governments across all campuses are working to promote a greater sense of Sun Devil community and student engagement through their programs this year.
Undergraduate Student Government President Mark Naufel said bolstering student pride is the first step in creating a university community.
“We have such a large school, it’s easy to feel lost,” said Naufel, a finance and computer science junior.
Naufel said he hopes the programs and initiatives will give every student the opportunity to find a place in the ASU community.
To achieve that goal, the Tempe USG is collaborating with student governments on the Downtown, West and Polytechnic campuses as well as the Graduate and Professional Student Association to launch a social media platform called Sun Devils Count, Naufel said.
USGW President Luke Webster, a political science senior, said Sun Devils Count will be similar to Foursquare, the mobile app that allows people to check in at different locations using GPS.
Naufel said the app will allow students to check into ASU events and earn points for each event.
Students will be able to trade in points for prizes and compete with one another for a position on the leader board.
Sun Devils Count is scheduled to launch in September.
ASU Votes 2012, another University-wide campaign, is designed to prepare student voters for the November elections.
Rhian Stotts, GPSA President and graduate anthropology student, is spearheading the project with her administration.
ASU Votes 2012 will include the launching of a website containing candidate information for local, state and federal races as well as their stances on educational issues.
She said the student governments will be tabling at all four campuses to provide students with hard copies of this information.
“It’s a nonpartisan effort,” Stotts said. “We just want students to have that information available to them.”
USGP President and food industries management senior Jeffrey Hebert said the five student governments are also going to push voter registration.
USG began this effort during move-in and fall welcome. It has resulted in 1,000 newly registered student voters, Naufel said.
Along with these projects, each individual student government body has campus-specific plans.
Naufel said USG Tempe is hoping to begin construction on an indoor pavilion this year that will be designed specifically as a place for clubs and organizations to host events.
USG Tempe will also be working to provide clubs with on-campus storage space, he said.
USGW plans to focus on streamlining the student experience.
“We have to ask ourselves, what are the things that distract us as students?” Webster said.
USGW wants to eliminate logistical and functional obstacles to enable a more focused academic environment.
USGP is experimenting with new ways of getting students involved with their government.
Hebert said USGP is creating trading cards for each USGP officers and senators with their name and position on the card. USGP will pass out these cards in an effort to get more students involved on campus, he said.
Hebert said USGP will try to bring improvements to their outdated roads and streets.
“We want to make (the students’) years at ASU the best they can be,” Hebert said.
Reach the reporter at tnhoman@asu.edu
