Today is the first of a series of stories that will explore BYUSA as an organization. The articles will look at how BYUSA is controlled and how it impacts students.
By DAVID RANDALL
We see the posters. Sometimes we go to the dances, the concerts or parties.
We hear about elections. We may even vote, if we were part of 10 percent that clicked for or against BYUSA president-elect France Nielson.
But what is BYUSA? If it really is the Brigham Young University Student Service Association, why do they only have one “S”? And if it is a student service association, is it for students to do service, or to service students?
Even Nielson, following his victory, said he was waiting on training to find out exactly what programs he would work with.
“It’s kind of hard to think about all of them right now with all the excitement,” he told the Daily Universe.
So what power do they have? Can students expect to understand what goes on in WSC 3400? Are they nothing more than a resume-loading, party-planning committee?
The late Eugene England, a former BYU English professor said the latter was his impressions of BYU student government over a decade ago.
“My few contacts with student government convinced me it was a group of nice, ambitious, able people engaged mainly in padding their resumes and keeping a small minority of the students entertained with dances and elections,” he wrote in the April 1988 “BYU Today.”
It was around that time, when, after at least four years of petitions and analyzing, ASBYU (the Associated Students of Brigham Young University) was changed to SSABYU and eventually BYUSA (as other permutations of the acronym seemed inappropriate).
The change was based on the assumptions that student government problems were structural and not people based.
“The past several groups of student leaders have felt a need to revise the present system,” reads a 1986-87 petition for a new student government.
Student leaders and administrators decided to retailer the organization to eliminate some of the perceived negative student government aspects like wasteful spending and circus-like elections. The new model gave BYUSA two responsibilities: (1)Service and (2)Advising administration on student issues.
And that is much the same way student leaders and supervisors view the role of BYUSA now.
The newest Charter revision for BYUSA, finished in December, (10 pages compared to the 147 page proposal from 1986) states the following:
“The committee identified two equally important roles for the BYU Student Service Association: to serve and to advise. The trustees, the university leadership and the students themselves look to the student association to fill these critical functions.”
The advisory role of BYUSA will be covered in a later article. Their role as a service organization is treated in the space that follows.
So how successful have the reforms been? How much service does BYUSA do?
According to Sam Glanzer, BYUSA Executive Vice President, his organization involves about 2,000 students each year, and virtually all work without any sort of compensation outside pizza parties, retreats and T-shirts.
But what kind of service does BYUSA do? This goes back to the question of the name. Is it an organization that serves students or an organization that involves students in service?
While both statements are true, what follows may be the most accurate description. It is a group of students mostly serving other students. The “service” term used so commonly in the BYUSA literature and among the organizations leaders is not, for the most part, visiting with the elderly, or raking leaves.
In fact, while each BYUSA sponsored club is required to do a service project, most of the student community service involvement is handled by the Student Center for Service and Learning [formerly the Jacobsen Center].
Instead, BYUSA focuses itself in four areas, Campus Activities [most of what students see as BYUSA: Battle of the Bands, Spring Fling, the Unforum, etc.], Public Relations [press releases, retreats and in-house relations], Clubs, and SAC [the Student Advisory Council and other forums for student concerns]. Each area is headed by a vice-president, who receives a full-tuition scholarship plus some money for books, and is asked to give 25-30 hours a week as they coordinate anywhere from four to six executive directors.
Each executive director is asked to give 10-15 hours a week without compensation as they coordinate two to five program directors that handle specific events such as preference or guitars unplugged. The program directors, also strictly volunteers, work a few hours each week, plus whatever hours may be necessary as their event draws closer.
While a lack of paid employees may create some limitations, such as higher turnover and lack of research, BYUSA president Dave Johnson said he feels the volunteer system was the best way to go.
“I can’t image a model where compensation to student leaders would render long-term, good results,” Johnson said. “It’s passionate, involved students that are going to give the best result.”
Glanzer added that while he does receive a scholarship, he still feels like a volunteer.
“I could be making minimun wage and be getting more than what my scholarship is giving me,” he said. “We all are truly volunteers.”
