FUSA Initiatives 2008-2009
Involving Students in University Management
FUSA believes it is vital that students achieve greater involvement in the University decision-making process. In order to achieve this, FUSA has arranged for student involvement on several University committees and has established student advisory committees to work in conjunction with certain University offices. These committees provide a place for issues facing the University to be discussed and make meaningful decisions, and FUSA has worked so that students have a seat at the table during this process.
In other efforts to strengthen the student voice on campus, FUSA is committed to working with other student affairs clubs within the community. With all student affairs clubs working together towards common goals and conveying similar messages to administrators, the student voice will be much louder and powerful.
Communicating with Constituents
FUSA recognizes that to effectively represent the student body, strong lines of communication must be opened with its constituents. One effort to improve communication with the student body is to redesign this web site and make it more useful. This web site features information on FUSA's goals and responsibilities, bios of the FUSA leadership, pictures from FUSA events, and more.
This year FUSA leaders are committed to actively seeking student feedback, suggestions, and concerns. FUSA leaders will work to become better known among their constituents and make greater efforts to foster their opinions on various matters that affect them.
Building a More Connected FUSA
In order to provide the best representation for the student body, FUSA understands the importance of building a cohesive team. To do this, FUSA leaders are committed to training and engaging all its members in student leadership opportunities while educating them on their roles and responsibilities. Through distributing responsibilities and holding members accountable for their duties, FUSA will provide more effective representation for the student body.
Off-Campus Housing
FUSA is a strong supporter of the opportunity for Fairfield Students to live off campus and is committed to ensuring that the Off-Campus lottery process is conducted in a way that is fair for all students.
Over the summer, the Office of Residence Life has worked with FUSA to make changes to the lottery process to ensure its fairness. The lottery process for 2008 will be announced through literature and a series of information sessions at the start of the year.
The 2010 Class Council is spearheading the effort to clearly communicate the OCB process to the members of the Class of 2010. FUSA feels that explaining the OCB process in a simple manner would relieve much of the stress and confusion that this process has caused in the past.
On-Campus Housing
FUSA has active membership on the Housing Lottery Committee that is committed to developing the on-campus housing lottery process that will take place in the Spring of 2009. This committee is looking at models used at other schools and discussing what housing selection model best fits the needs of Fairfield students. FUSA is committed to a housing lottery that is fair and equal to all Fairfield students.
Registration
FUSA has active membership on the University registration committee that is charged with analyzing Fairfield's current registration process and to improving it to better fit the needs of its students.
Specifically, FUSA feels that preferential registration needs to be more limited as it is currently received by over 700 students, that the registration process needs to be more streamlined and take place over a shorter period of time, and schedule turbos to not overlap several class time codes.
Academic Advising
FUSA has started working with faculty and administrators across campus to improve Academic Advising. Over the coming months FUSA will be working to develop short- and long-term improvement strategies.
In the short term, FUSA is committed to focusing on creating a strong peer advising structure, while making improvements to faculty advising in the long term.
Faculty Evaluation
FUSA is committed to working with faculty members to create a faculty evaluation form that more effectively assesses the faculty member's overall teaching style and ability. FUSA feels that it should have the ability to include a set of questions on the evaluation that are returned after completion. FUSA then would like to publish these responses for students to use when selecting classes for the following semester.
