A. Ray Olpin University Union

The Union Programming Council serves as the heart of the Union, inviting every student to come participate, serve, and learn while enhancing their educational experience. We seek to provide exciting opportunities for students to make the Union their home. This year the Union Programming Council has set out to advance this vision further. Collectively, we have decided to make connecting the Union a priority. We seek not only to connect offices within the Union to promote a lively and exciting community for its student and non-student faculty, but also to connect the Union to campus. This has been challenging with the teardown of OSH, as many centrally located offices classroom space has been dispersed throughout campus, but it creates an exciting opportunity for our student leaders to stretch themselves to incorporate more groups on campus.

We have committed ourselves to stepping up our support of other offices’ events as well as offer a more programming-based partnership with the groups we work with. Sharing our love of programming and student life has been a highlight of the year thus far. UPC is constantly reevaluating the why and how of our process. From event planning to recruiting, we have taken new approaches and have received incredible feedback. This year we took our Freshman Ambassador Board application online and participated in orientation open house events. This radically changed the reach of our recruiting. Having received over 90 applications, we were overwhelmed by the interest and qualifications of applicants. Our 34 current freshman members have jumped aboard with a seemingly endless supply of enthusiasm and dedication. It has been inspiring to work with such committed student leaders.

We have also looked internally at how we can more intentionally connect our student leaders to each other, the Union, and the campus community. Having integrated ACUI’s ILead (a leadership conference our directors attend each year) development exercises in our general meetings, and ILead reflections in our personal development within the organization, we have enjoyed renewed commitment to our mission and goals. This has enriched the experience of our members and positively affected our outreach to other campus groups. Being more intentional about connecting the Union has been an amazing goal this year. It has brought immense growth to our organization and its members as well as being a big step towards an even more harmonious campus community.

– Sarah Moffit, UPC Executive Director