In an effort to jumpstart interaction between the Undergraduate Council of Students and the student body, UCS representatives will be assigned to specific campus regions starting sometime next semester. While the plan is still in its beginning stages, President Joel Payne '05 believes it will expedite and broaden UCS communication with the Brown community at large.
"This is a vehicle to interact with the student body, because we do a poor job of it now," Payne said. "It's hard to reach people when there are only 40 UCS members in charge of the entire student body."
Payne introduced the plan during his campaign for UCS president last year. Although it is unrelated to the Department of Public Safety's new community policing initiative, which divides the campus into smaller regions assigned to specific officers, the spirit of the two initiatives is similar.
Under the new UCS plan, Payne envisions approximately eight UCS representatives assigned to each of four precincts on campus.
A suggestion box would be set up at a prominent post in each region for residents to voice their concerns. In addition, pertinent UCS information would be posted there, including the representatives' office hours in the UCS office. Once or twice a semester, the representatives in charge of each precinct would hold a regional forum in a town meeting format for residents to discuss problems that need to be rectified. Twice a semester, UCS will compile a campus-wide regional report to facilitate accurate goal-setting, Payne said.
"Your average run-of-the-mill student doesn't really know us," Payne said. "It's all about accessibility, and this will make UCS much more effective."
UCS representatives already have at their disposal several methods of communication - door-to-door solicitation, mailbox slips, campus-wide e-mail notices and a standing invitation for any student to attend the Wednesday 8 p.m. meetings in Petteruti Lounge - but Payne said he feels these methods are incomparable to regional representation.
UCS Vice President Charley Cummings '06 agreed that the more organized plan Payne proposes to foster student-representative relations would be beneficial.
"Anything to increase the dialogue between UCS and students strengthens our ability to advocate for them," he said. "I think it has the potential to have a great effect, since one of UCS's perennial issues and shortcomings is communication with the student body. We've come a long way in a few years, but we have a long way to go."
Associate UCS member Melba Melton '06 said she strongly supports the plan. "It would give representatives more of a responsibility," Melton said. "In the past, some reps didn't take the initiative to go out and talk to people, and by instating a new plan, they would have no choice but to get involved in the community."
Next week, UCS will distribute an annual report in each student's mailbox discussing each UCS committee's agenda for the semester, some of which include election reform and negotiations with Brown University Dining Services regarding hours at Josiah's and the Gate. But Cummings said he feels students also need to be involved with the development of the community outreach program.
"It's in the beginning stages of a great idea," Cummings said. "To decide how this program would be, we need to have a greater dialogue not just internally with our own reps, but with the community as a whole."
