Until this semester students had few options to air their grievances on any and all topics pertaining to the University of Wyoming, but ASUW’s new WyoVocal seems to be changing that.
Ahmed Balogun, ASUW president, and Ricardo Lind-Gonzales, ASUW vice president, recognized the importance of a platform, like WyoVocal, that could allow students to engage in discussion about relevant issues that have impact on the student body last year during their campaign, Robert West, ASUW Director of Institutional Development, said.
“Ahmed and Ricardo had this idea last year during their campaign for ASUW,” West said. “They brought the platform and it was met with a positive response and one of the most largely supported ideas.”
The platform launched last October, following positive reception from ASUW executives and senators alike that hoped to improve any communication disconnects between their organization and the student body.
“As long as I have been involved with ASUW, it seems there has been a real disconnect with executives and students,” West said. “We can table and go to RSOs and classrooms, but how do we receive real feedback and find out what issues students really want addressed?”
The online platform gives students the ability to vote on submitted issues. Once an issue receives a certain number of votes, West, currently the individual monitoring the site, meets with executives to determine a course of action.
“Once an issue reaches a vote threshold of 400 votes, I will meet with Ahmed and Ricardo to see where we can put the issue,” West said. “We either charge it to a committee, or an executive. From there they can look at WyoVocal to gather feedback, what is being said to develop a course of action to move forward.”.
West said this set up is designed to encourage ASUW members to look further into issues by placing responsibility and accountability on certain executives and committees.
“Ultimately they would do more research and development and potentially do a more comprehensive survey for concrete evidence and ideas,” West said.
Still in its infant stages, there is evidence the platform is being utilized by some.
Data provided by the ASUW’s department of institutional development shows that 1.092 unique student accounts have interacted with the platform since October over a total of 137,700 page views.
While this number seems large, it is much smaller than the total student population and shows that many students might not know about WyoVocal or have heard of it but have not used it. West said this might be the result of student confusion regarding the platform.
“Feedback from executives is typically that they like the platform and they think that it is a good idea to reach out to students,” West said. “From students there is confusion with what exactly it is but that is to be expected with any new technology or platforms and it was expected.”
A brief poll conducted by this paper asked 20 students if they had heard of WyoVocal and if they had used it. Fifty percent of students asked had not heard of the platform and an additional 25 percent asked had not used it, though they knew what it was.
David Case, a junior in mechanical engineering, said his experience using WyoVocal was good.
“I use WyoVocal to see what other students are complaining about,” Case said, “and I mostly agreed specifically with the improved parking issue. I think it is a useful tool,” said Case. “I like the idea that issues go through ASUW and you do not need many votes to have your idea heard.”
Students who knew about WyoVocal often said it was a great idea, but said there was little incentive for students to use it. Case said this is not the platform’s fault.
“The set up is the way it should be,” Case said. “I just don’t know how you actually get students to use it and I think that is the biggest challenge.”
West said his hope is all students on campus will know what it is and will feel engaged to use it.
“We are trying to counteract student confusion by education,” West said. “We are going to RSO meetings and reaching out to other groups with an invested interest on this campus. It will take some time to grow in the student consciousness, We are looking to ingrain WyoVocal and have it promote itself through opportunities like summer freshman orientations.”
ASUW President Ahmed Balogun and Vice President Ricardo Lind-Gonzales advocated for the WyoVocal platform during their campaign. The platform is intended to improve communication gaps between the student body and their ASUW representatives regarding various campus issues.
