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Project Seven just shy of goal
At the beginning of the school year, Trinity Western University Student Association president Norman Van Eeden Petersman set an ambitious goal: to reach each student on campus seven times through the association.
The end results of this endeavour, called Project Seven, show that students were impacted by TWUSA 14,003 times over the course of the year. This is just shy of the roughly 15,500 times needed to accomplish the goal.
The purpose of this plan was to inform students of what TWUSA does and to foster student participation and engagement, said Van Eeden Petersman.
The focus of the project was “to reach in,” not merely touching people through events, but encouraging students to actively participate in TWUSA, said Van Eeden Petersman. Students were encouraged to take part as specialists and consultants, fulfilling roles such as research assistant and director of operations.
“[Each student needs] to engage as a good citizen,” Van Eeden Petersman said of life on campus.
Although the method of measuring success was susceptible to flaws, Van Eeden Petersman maintains that TWUSA has reached its goal. TWUSA was able to record the potential average number of times each student was reached by calculating how many students attended each of the events put on by the student association.
While there is no way to judge whether or not the association has reached each individual student seven times, Van Eeden Petersman believes that the number of events TWUSA was involved with this year has ensured what he called a strong presence on campus. He hopes this will reflect the amount of work and effort that went into the association’s involvement with the student body this year.
When asked if he would change anything for next year, the student president said that a focus on the ratio between students served and fees collected would be a useful benchmark by which to judge the effectiveness of TWUSA events and outreach.
“The proposals budget should be scrutinized more closely,” he said, “maximizing potential of each dollar.” By discouraging backhand secrecy through exposing the financial budgets, he added, there could be a more effective management and distribution of funds.
Overall, Van Eeden Petersman hoped the impact of Project Seven will inspire more student feedback and involvement in the events and organizations that TWUSA is involved with.
“By helping people, you’re more likely to hear their voice,” he said.
[By discouraging backhand secrecy through exposing the financial budgets, he added, there could be a more effective management and distribution of funds.]
For the record:
This quote seems to suggest that ‘backhand secrecy’ is a common practice that is in need of reform within TWUSA. In reality, the exact opposite is the case. ‘Backdoor financing’ is not something that we engage in as the leaders of the Student Association. While the article suggests our funds “could” be more transparently handled, I would like to assure all Student Association members that your fees ARE transparently handled.
With regards to the statement suggesting “the method of measuring success was susceptible to flaws”, I would like to assure you that this is simply because we haven’t been able to accurately count ALL of the initiatives that the Student Council has participated in. A number of the tallies were significantly lower than they would be if a precise count were taken and it was this process of perpetual ‘low-balling’ estimates that ensured that we were honestly and fairly making progress towards our target without inflating our numbers. I stand by this method because I believe it is very important to be modest with our measurements and careful with our communication of success.
In addition, this article suggests that TWUSA has fallen short of its ambitious goal. The exact opposite is the case. At the conclusion of today’s activities (April 16), when the video yearbooks and the yearbooks are distributed to all the people who pick them up while also enjoying a free burger and a pop at the end of the year bbq, TWUSA will have touched students 19,753 times. I will be sending out the breakdown of ‘touches’ for your scrutiny in the days to come but I can assure you that we HAVE ACHIEVED OUR GOALS this year!
I am very proud of the successes which are highlighted in our Project 7 reports and it has been an incredible experience for me to monitor the accomplishments of TWUSA and to see the numbers piling up month after month.
Congratulations to the Student Council. Your hard work has been noted and appreciated.
Sincerely,
Norm VEP, TWUSA President