Over a third of undergraduates have no opinion of their elected representatives on the Undergraduate Council of Students, according to a recent Herald poll.
Asked whether they approve or disapprove of the way UCS is handling its job, 46 percent said they approved, while 20 percent said they disapproved. The 34 percent who said they didn't know or had no answer is similar to student responses in past polls - 34.5 percent had no opinion of UCS a year ago, and 42 percent gave that response last November.
The poll this semester was conducted Jan. 29 to Feb.2 and has a margin of error of 4.7 percent with 95 percent confidence. The Herald poll conducted a year ago had a margin of error of 4.6 percent, and the poll last fall had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.
"I don't think people are going to have a strong opinion about UCS unless they come to meetings or UCS projects affect them," said UCS Communications Chair Michael Glassman '09.
But Glassman said he was not surprised that the number of students with no opinion of UCS dropped from last semester. "It reflects everyone being at Brown a semester longer," he said, noting that students who weren't aware of UCS in the fall may have had a chance to learn about or get involved with the organization since the last poll.
Tristan Freeman '07, vice president of UCS, said the large number of students with no opinion of UCS is not a reflection of the current leadership. He noted the importance of "re-educating students about what UCS does on a fundamental level."
Freeman said he was "extremely pleased" that the poll showed more student support for UCS than in the past - the 46 percent who voiced support for UCS this semester is up from the 38.9 percent who did so in last semester's poll. But approval for UCS is still down from a year ago, when 53.5 percent of students voiced their support.
Freeman said the uptick in approval for UCS is probably the result of successful projects such as the winter term and Internet Protocol Television, as well as ongoing efforts such as a proposal to add a DVD rental service to the Sciences Library.
But some students still say they don't know enough about UCS to have an opinion.
"To be honest, I don't really know enough ... to approve or disapprove," said Matthew Listro '07. "I know they work behind the scenes to give students a voice, (but) I'm unsure how they go about that."
Amanda Muchnick '07 said she doesn't know what UCS does but attributes that to her lack of interest in student government.
"(It's) partly my own personal thing. I'm not really into politics and this is the equivalent of Brown politics," she said, adding that she believes any major changes on campus are "going to happen from Brown faculty and administration."
On the other hand, some students say they like the job UCS is doing.
Max Schoening '09 said he approves of UCS and has had good experiences with the organization. A member of the Darfur Action Network, Schoening said his group "needed to raise substantial funds" for a conference and UCS gave the group Category III status, permitting them to apply for a full budget from the Undergraduate Finance Board.
Schoening said it isn't difficult to get involved in UCS and thinks students who didn't express an opinion about UCS on the poll were "lazy" and chose the "easy answer."
"If you want to know about it, I think it's pretty easy to find out about it," he said. "(In) high school, people get skeptical about student government and that carries on into college."
Glassman said people "maybe take for granted" the work UCS does behind the scenes to "help Brown."
But Freeman said UCS won't be agonizing over the results, saying members "don't sit around reading the poll," adding that students will likely support UCS more as they continue to see it producing results.
