“The purpose of the University Activities Council (UAC) is to serve students by providing for their social well-being through coordinated program of activities appealing to a broad student base.”
The mission statement for the UAC is a bold commitment to provide students with activities throughout the year that everyone will find interesting. Does the UAC advertise frequently enough and put on successful activities? Does it have the budget from the university that will allow it to rise to its full potential?
Some previous activities hosted this fall were the Glow Party, the Block Party and the Water Park. SGA President Olivia Melton explained the UAC’s function in the university.
“SGA and UAC do correlate on some projects, especially when it comes to homecoming. However, UAC’s activities are big picture,” Melton says. “They do a lot.”
Dollar movie night is an extremely popular event for Troy University students; the average attendance per movie night is 1,200 students.
Josie Russell, UAC president, expanded on budgeting concerning dollar movie night.
“Budget concerns were one major reason we reduced movie night to once a month,” Russell said. “UAC covers the difference of the dollar each student pays; therefore, we have to cover at least $6 per student.”
The UAC receives anywhere from $150,000 to $170,000 per academic year to host the best events. Part of this funding comes from an activity fee students pay every year; this activity fee is spread throughout the UAC’s budget, as well as other committees.
“Our direct student funding, per student, is something that can be closer examined,” Melton said. “When I look at other universities, I feel that they may have more funding for that.”
Derrick Brewster, assistant dean of student services, said, “We definitely work with what we have and use other meaningful resources to better serve our students.”
“Of course we would love to have more money in order to deliver more programs to our students,” Russell said. “We work with what we have, and we are proud of the opportunity to serve.”
“We could use additional funding in order to better enhance student programming at the university,” Brewster said.
However, this begs the question: do students take advantage of the UAC’s activities for the UAC to receive more funding?
Nathan Evans, a senior music major from Brewton, said that he has been to dollar movie nights. When asked how much he thought the UAC receives budget-wise per year, he said, “$2,000, if that.”
“I never really get to hear about activities,” Evans said. “Lesser-known organizations may not get to hear about things because we don’t have communications with them.”
Evans, a Sound of the South member, feels that the UAC should “communicate with everybody instead of just frat row and sorority hill.”
Is there enough advertising for each activity hosted by the UAC?
Sharnay Sharp, a senior political science major from Montgomery, said she sees “posters on the quad maybe once every three to four months.”
Sharp felt that none of the activities she has heard of or attended were “memorable, unless they put on a step show.” Sharp took a guess at the UAC’S budget; $1,000 was her estimate.
Cheyenne Davis, a freshman history major from Millbrook, guessed the UAC received $5,000 per year.
Davis said she enjoyed the events; however, when asked how many activities she thought were hosted by the UAC per semester, she guessed five.
Kayla Duncan, a junior accounting major from Talladega, supposed the UAC received $50,000 per year, which was a closer estimate.
She knew that it hosted at least one activity per week. Besides dollar movie night, she could not list any other activity the UAC put on.
“We work very hard on the executive board to include events that benefit every population on campus,” Russell said. “I do feel as though the executive board of UAC is doing their absolute best work in regards to having the best events for our students on campus.”
Does the UAC reach our diverse student population? Does it perform to its fullest potential considering the amount of funding it receives?
According to Derrick Brewster, the UAC is always open to different events, so please send any concerns or suggestions to dbrew@troy.edu.
Comments