Challenge: The broad base of the 18,000 stakeholders of the Dalhousie Student Union had no clear means of shaping the priorities of the governance team or of tracking progress towards established goals. As a result there was a generalized lack of awareness and apathy towards the Union amongst its core stakeholders.

Response: By integrating a software called Soapbox into the organization’s website and social media profiles we enabled any student to suggest an idea, vote and comment on others’ suggestions, and track the Union’s responses and progress towards goals. Additionally, we developed policy to allow easy access to volunteer opportunities and ensured faculty councils were also increasing their responsiveness and representativeness.

Results:

involved over 1000 students directly in idea generation and prioritization
implemented over 25 student-generated ideas
this project was a cornerstone of our broader outreach efforts that led to a 250%
increased social media reach by over 250% increase in social media reach, and 61% increase in voter turnout over the prior year