Nearly half of all students have no opinion of how the Undergraduate Council of Students is conducting its job, according to a Herald poll conducted last month. Among respondents, 49.3 percent circled "Don't know/No answer" when prompted to rate UCS's performance - a 14.2 percent increase from this spring's poll, and 17.7 percent higher than that figure last fall.
The poll also indicated that 38.1 percent of students approve of UCS - including 5.1 percent who strongly approve. That number is virtually unchanged from last spring's 39.6 percent and last fall's 39.3 percent somewhat or strongly approving. In last month's poll, 12.6 percent said they somewhat or strongly disapproved of UCS, down from last spring's mark of 25.2 percent not approving of how the council was operating.
UCS President Brian Becker '09 said he wasn't troubled by the poll's results. "You're always going to have a problem with constituents not always knowing what their governments are doing," he said.
"Regardless of what polls are saying we're working hard and we're working as best as we know how to accurately represent students and advocate on their behalf at all levels," he said.
Becker also said he thinks the results of the poll were "directly related to the number of stories" on UCS in The Herald. The results are "not a reflection whatsoever on what UCS has done," he added.
But many students interviewed by The Herald said they thought the methods that UCS uses to inform the student body, such as the council's new e-mail newsletter, the UCS Monthly, are ineffective.
Aadon Penny '11 said he has never even seen the e-mails in his inbox and never knew they were sent out.
"I definitely think e-mail is not going to work," Sarah Sherman '09 said. She said students get many e-mails from Brown that they immediately delete, and that UCS Monthly just gets "clumped into that group of e-mails that people do not read."
UCS Communications Chair Clay Wertheimer '10 said he thought UCS has done "a very good job" communicating with students this semester, specifically noting its new membership policy and a monthly newsletter.
Wertheimer said UCS has had plans for increasing student awareness since before the polls were conducted. He said UCS will hold its first town hall meeting next week, providing an informal space for all students to meet the council and raise their concerns. This meeting - advertised in yesterday's UCS Monthly - will also be promoted through Facebook and a targeted e-mail that will only be sent to first-years.
Another way that UCS is attempting to engage students this semester, Becker said, is by allowing any member of the Brown community to address UCS at the start of every general body meeting on Wednesdays, during community time. But UCS minutes show that nobody, save UCS members, has spoken during this community time this semester.
Penny said he would show up during UCS's community time if an issue he cared about was being debated - and if he had known about community time. He also said UCS could be more flexible, because many students have other obligations on Wednesday nights.
UCS has also used MyCourses polls to understand what sorts of issues are relevant to Brown undergraduates, but several students interviewed by The Herald said the polls could be advertised better. Liling Soh '10 said she has never participated in a MyCourses poll, and David Guervich '11 said he has not participated recently.
Carlos Soto '09 said he rarely participates in the polls because he never knows when they are happening. He said UCS needs a more effective way of letting students know about them, saying tableslips informing students about the online polls and paper-based polls would be useful.
Wertheimer said these polls have not always been well-advertised and that UCS is making changes in advertising this year.
UCS launched a new MyCourses poll yesterday, collaborating with the Brown Concert Agency to include both organizations' questions, in an effort to create less confusion and to give students an incentive to complete the survey. "I think people feel strongly about Spring Weekend," Wertheimer said. "Students will be entered into a lottery to win spring weekend tickets when they take the poll."
UCS will also advertise the poll on Facebook, in UCS Monthly and on the television screens located around campus, Wertheimer said. UCS members will also hand out slips of paper telling students to take the poll in the Sciences Library, Rockefeller Library and the Watson Center for Computing and Information Technology. UCS has also attempted to get funding from the Undergraduate Finance Board to have advertising space in The Herald, but UFB rejected its proposal and its appeal.
The Herald poll was conducted Oct. 27 and Oct. 28 and has a 3.6 percent margin of error with 95 percent confidence. A total of 649 Brown undergraduates completed the poll, which was administered as a written questionnaire to students in the University Post Office at J. Walter Wilson, outside the Blue Room in Faunce House and in the Sciences Library.
