A look around campus show that very few students are aware of CU’s student union and it’s $30 million dollar budget
CU’s student government, the University of Colorado Student Union (UCSU), manages a lump sum of $30 million each year, one of the biggest student government budgets in the United States. Their budget is comprised almost entirely of mandatory student fees, yet when 10 students were asked what UCSU actually is, only two students were even close to answering correctly.
Several students were at a loss for words.
Q: What is UCSU?
A: “I’ve never heard of that before. Is that a college? It probably stands for, well, I don’t know,” said Tony Han, a sophomore chemical engineering major.
Q: What is UCSU?
A: “Isn’t that, like, the University of Colorado State or something? Or the University of Colorado State University? I don’t know. That doesn’t make sense. Is this bad that I don’t know? It helps students or something, right?” said Libby Fenstermacher, a freshman pre-journalism major.
Q: What is UCSU?
A: “The only thing I know is, well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s University of Colorado School Union. I think it’s something that’s on one of my professor’s websites or something,” said Bridget Gleason, a sophomore pre-journalism major.
Q: What is UCSU?
A: “I think, from what I understand, it’s different representations around the school like different groups, minorities and organizations. Basically, I don’t know, do they come up with rules?” said Katie Van Scoyk, a junior journalism major.
A few students that were asked had a fairly good idea of what UCSU is.
Q: What is UCSU?
A: “Um, it’s student government, right? I think they try to make changes in the school and make new policies. I think it stands for University of Colorado Student Union,” said Kaitlyn, a junior journalism major.
Q: What is UCSU?
A: Um, I have no clue. Is it the University of Colorado Union or something? I guess they organize student activities and manage student fees or something, I don’t know,” said Ben Sengon, a sophomore economics major.
Well, for those of you who don’t know, UCSU is CU’s student government. They are essentially the voice of the student body, the liaison between the students and the administration and the people students should go to if they want to see some kind of change on CU’s campus.
The $30 million in which they are in control of is divvied up to various allocations like the UMC, Wardenburg and new buildings on campus like the Wolf Law Building. The UCSU elected staff deals with student group funding, building renovations and other various student related issues.
Eric Day, a sophomore political science major who was a running candidate for UCSU Representative at Large on the EDJ Ticket, he said he believes there is a strong disconnect between UCSU and the student body.
“Student’s can’t see what (UCSU) is doing,” Day said. “It’s like a shapeless cloud hovering over the CU campus.”
Other students involved with UCSU question whether or not the students are at fault.
“Maybe the students don’t care. I think it has something to do with students not being actively involved and not wanting to have awareness,” said Joanna Burrows, a senior English literature major who is the UCSU election commissioner.
Burrows also believes UCSU could maybe do a better job making their presence known.
“Maybe it’s also the fault of UCSU because when freshmen come in for orientation there’s no table set up about UCSU,” Burrows said. “I think the UCSU could do a better job spreading the word – especially with the freshman coming in.”
Though she finds it difficult to pinpoint and determine whose fault it is, Burrows said she thinks both UCSU representatives and students are to blame.
“There’s something elitist about it, but I think it’s the fault of both the students and UCSU,” Burrows said. “They could each do more.”
