As students maneuver the onslaught of yellow and orange signs during BYUSA elections week, many wonder how the candidates are going to help improve BYU.
This year's candidates are running on a pre-approved set of initiatives to change and improve campus. Though students in years past may have been leery of initiatives that seemed far-fetched, this year's campaigns include proposals that, according to BYU officials, are plausible.
Among Summer Price and Devon Glassman's full list of initiatives is a plan to improve an alumni-networking database. This will allow students to get in touch with alumni all over the country who are working in their fields of study.
Though the Alumni Association currently has a database, it isn't well known or utilized.
"No one knows about it," said Price, an elementary education major who is running for President. "Because no one knows about it and uses it they haven't done anything to update it in a long time."
Price and Glassman agree that networking is an important part of securing jobs, so they have outlined plans to improve the website. These include creating more links to it from BYU's homepage, publicizing it better so students know about it, making it easier to navigate and enabling it to facilitate more users.
"As we are trying to provide service to students, what better way than to increase their chances for success in the future?" Price said.
Michael Cunningham, manager of computer information and records for the Alumni Association, said updating the database and making it more available to students is definitely feasible.
"I don't think there's anything...that we couldn't do for them if they requested," Cunningham said, regarding making changes to the database.
Though some students said they weren't sure how often they would use the new database, others were excited about the project.
"The idea that there would be a way to get in touch with people who have the same skills you are learning would be helpful," said Teri Dillon, a student from Farmington majoring in microbiology.
John Romney and Jason Linford, the other pair contending for the presidency, are also running on a list of initiatives that includes a plan to make the all-in-one campus calendar on the BYU homepage more inclusive.
"It will create one place on campus where any student can access everything that's going on," said Romney, who's running for president.
Romney said getting events onto the calendar is currently a tedious process, and although the current calendar is useful, it is very limited and excludes a lot of important activities.
He and Linford intend to make it so more of the clubs and organizations around campus can post their events on the calendar. The new calendar would also allow students to query events and find more details, including when and where things are happening.
"This would serve all students, because all students need to know ...what's going on on campus," Romney said.
Brent Harker, director of web communication for BYU, said he didn't foresee any problems with the calendar Romney described.
"It is a project that would require some cooperation... but it is certainly do-able," Harker said.
Many students liked the idea that they could find out about more campus events in one location.
"It seems like an excellent idea," said Jon Kotter, a business major from Sandy. "Sounds very convenient."
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Copyright Brigham Young University 5 Mar 2007
