Student Council received 368 applications for positions on 16 different committees, 26 fewer than last year’s record-breaking fall recruitment.
Council could not email out the Class of 2016 listerv this year, which third-year College student Eric McDaniel, Student Council’s director of University relations, said could potentially explain the decrease in applicants. Council was unable to meet with Virginia Carter, director of external communications, who has the ability to send emails to class listservs, until after the application period had ended.
“This year students needed to take a more active interest,” McDaniel said. “Hopefully the applications coming in are more quality, [even] if we do not have the same quantity.”
Council committees were looking to add to their current rosters, which include members who have remained on the committees from previous years.
Demographic information on committee applicants is not collected during the process, but Council surveys accepted applicants after it completes recruitment.
This year Council reached out to the Minority Rights Coalition and transfer students to try to ensure that this year’s crop of applicants was from a wide range of University communities, McDaniel said.
Fourth-year College student Sarah Steely, Council’s chief of cabinet, said chairs develop the central structure of their committee back in April, during the last round of Council recruitment.
“The first years just provide this new, useful, really excited energy that adds to the committee,” Steely said.
Steely said committees are usually looking for about four new committee members, although that varies with committee size and chair preference. Of those committee members who participated fully in their committee until the end of the spring semester, 85 to 90 percent return the following year, McDaniel said.
The number of applications per committee varied widely. More than 50 students applied to the Student Life committee. On the other hand, CIO Consultants and the Technology committee both received fewer than 10 each.
“The number of applications generally parallels pretty well the size of the committee,” McDaniel said.
Once students are appointed to a committee, there is no mechanism for moving to a different committee, because the competitiveness for each committee’s recruiting process varies.
The application process closed Friday evening.
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