BYUSA’s Student Advisory Council invited students to join campus improvement focus groups, providing a space for them to give feedback on ideas to help improve the BYU student experience.
The council held a focus group event on Nov. 14 in the WSC Garden Court with 18 groups, two for each of the council's nine research projects. Annie Walker, the BYUSA vice president who oversees the council, supervised the event and guided students to which focus groups may be the best fit for them.
“The goal was to have that open dialogue and open conversation with students of all backgrounds on campus,” Walker said.
She said more than 300 individuals signed up to attend the event, and more than 200 attended. In 2023, only around 30 people attended.
“It was a crazy difference, which, I think, shows a lot about campus culture improving and people being really enthusiastic about making change on campus,” Walker said.
The council's nine research projects, according to its website, are Financial Awareness and Literacy, International Students, Improving the Freshman Experience, Safety on Campus, Campus Connections, Supporting BYU Families, Transfer Students, The World is Our Campus and Spiritual Welfare.
She said each attendee could provide feedback in two focus groups, allowing them to contribute to multiple campus improvement ideas.
“I think a lot of people don't recognize the opportunities that are offered at BYU and the opportunities that there are to make changes and have a lasting impact and legacy on campus,” Walker said. “If you see something on campus or you experience something that's negative, it's within your power to change it or be a part of the change.”
Ben White, the council's research director, ensured each team had all necessary resources to hold effective focus group meetings at the event.
“The irony of being at such a large university is that, with so many student perspectives and so many opportunities to hear from students, sometimes those voices run the risk of getting lost in the mix,” White said. “Our number one priority is making sure that those projects actually reflect the needs and the wants of our students.”
For White, this means interacting face-to-face with students and asking what they may need, want, enjoy or not enjoy on campus. White said these focus groups are the greatest source to learn about the student experience and how to better achieve the aims of a BYU education.
“Anybody who doubts that students don't want to make campus and the world a better place can just look at these focus groups in awe because we had over 200 students come, and every one of those students provided quality feedback on how to make campus a better place,” White said.
Bradley Chounlamountry, council lead for the Supporting BYU Families team, said his team pitched a daycare. Some students in his focus group also mentioned possibly adding a playground.
“It's really cool to get some feedback and some ideas that we had not thought of otherwise,” Chounlamountry said.
Adah Shippen, council lead for the Spiritual Welfare team, said her team pitched a Faith Forum to take place on Thursdays. These forums would be held in the Joseph Smith Building and focus on faith journeys of BYU faculty.
“Specifically hearing stories of certain professors or faculty members that (students) were mentioning would help them know in their own situations how to overcome those situations with their faith,” Shippen presented from the student feedback she received.
Her team is also working to increase the amount of religious art in campus buildings and outside, including a statue of Christ. She said students mentioned adding art in the Testing Center, JSB and Martin Building.
White also noted the possibility of a class within the Department of Religious Education on how to handle tough gospel questions.
Daniel Tyler Thiess, a member of The World is Our Campus team, said his team’s goal was to learn how students discover the various study abroad and international internship opportunities available to them.
His team pitched a sidebar that would pop up on MyMAP pages listing which study abroads or international internships would coincide with a student’s registered classes or major. Thiess said students were excited about this idea.
“We're just excited to help more people at BYU and maybe even help more students get that experience,” Thiess said.
Sean Tate, council lead for the Transfer Students team, said his team is researching how students can transfer credits easily. They asked students about their experience and resources they knew about when transferring credits to BYU.
His team is considering including more information on how to transfer credits in the packets the BYU Admissions office sends to new students, Tate said. The team is also working to add more 100-level, 200-level, major and prerequisite classes to the BYU database of all transferable credits instead of only general education and elective credits.
“Most of (the students) were pretty excited, pretty encouraging,” Tate said. “We got some new ideas of like how we could tweak our ideas to be more efficient, be better, so we were really glad for that.”
Maya Alvarez, council lead for the International Students team, said her team spoke with international students from around 12 different countries.
Her team tested ideas about belonging amongst international students but found students don’t struggle as much with belonging as the team originally thought. They instead found most international student issues stemmed from legal concerns with documentation, sponsorships and scholarships.
“It was really cool to be able to pitch a few things, but then (students) have the opportunity to kind of say all of these things that we weren't even aware of as non-international students,” Alvarez said.
White mentioned other projects from the council's teams, such as Financial Awareness and Literacy’s idea of a Financial Education Week and Safety on Campus’s idea of creating ridable lanes for bicycles and skateboards. He said the projects discussed in the focus groups received positive feedback overall.
Walker said the feedback they received from these focus groups helps the council representatives develop a valid proposal to present to President Reese at the end of the year and shows their project ideas have student support.
“Overall, there was a clear passion for these projects, and students definitely were very enthusiastic,” Walker said.
