Making the Student Union into a laboratory of applied, collaborative, action-focused learning
Challenge: There were unclear pathways to volunteer engagement within the Student Union which led to a perception of the organization being controlled by a small homogenous group of“insiders”.
Response: First we revamped policy to enable greater opportunities for participation from the general student population in Union operations. Then we undertook an intensive volunteer recruitment campaign that enabled people to choose their involvement from among fifteen core action teams (ranging from Environment Sustainability to Tuition Fee Advocacy to Community Outreach, etc).
Results:
- Engaged over 125 new volunteers in DSU activities via a campaign kick-off event
- Revised various Union committees structures to increase opportunities for volunteer participation. Strengthened staffing and governance structures of the Bike Centre and Sustainability Office to enable volunteer participation and facilitated the creation of new volunteer-driven offices such as the Peer Mental Health Initiative, Leadership Development Office, and Equity/Accessibility Office