Once hesitant, I now love living “The Dixie Life” but hope its ideas can evolve into more than to drown in foam and hunt for hotties at weekly socials.
Events aimed at enlightening Dixie State University students through song, dance and laughter crowd the events calendar each semester. While a select portion of students enjoy these gatherings, a little ingenuity on student government members’ parts could put Dixie on the map while bolstering the DSU Student Association’s impact.
There’s no question the annual Foam Dance is a hit. Having done little more than sneezed in a female’s general direction before attending last year, I quickly realized the grinding isn’t for me, but I appreciate that in at least one regard, student government has taken student input into account: event planning.
Yes, it appears students who give input, however small that number may be, request more dances and other social events. The attendance at said programs is decent, and my Facebook feed contains posts that gush about the fun to be had afterward.
It’s worth taking note of this, though: The same people attend the events and rave again and again.
Keeping loyal supporters happy is admirable and necessary. However, doing so doesn’t really do what Student Body President Carlos Morgan, and probably every student president at any school ever, said is a top goal: to receive large amounts of student input. Garnering more feedback takes reaching to people who won’t be seen at events the DSUSA has typically held as of late.
By brainstorming events that lean toward an academic nature, student government leaders can start some excellent traditions and broaden their base—thus creating a situation where they affect more students in a positive nature.
The best part is, student government leaders can modify numerous events that already take place on campus.
On the same calendar that social events over populate, informative speeches and presentations sometimes linger—in the afternoon hours, though, when students are in class or at work. To move these events into prime time, with the quality marketing that comes with a DSUSA-sponsored event, the student government could add some real diversity to the docket and show all students just how bad they want to represent everyone at DSU.
Do you think academic events that bridge the gap between roaring socials and TED-type talks would flounder? Initially, maybe, because students usually interested in school events may not show. The word of mouth that would soon spread because our student leaders are striving to plan in a nature much atypical of how college student associations do things, though, would acquire so much attention from both DSU students and those attending other universities.
Although dances much like the Foam Dance are fun and students love them, they’ll never be groundbreaking. As with most debates in regards to DSU’s future, university status should be taken into account, and I can’t think of a better way to usher in a new era than our student government leaders changing the way things are done and the way are students represented.
