As you go about your classes, you may soon run into a member of the Salt Lake Community College Student Association as they haul around suggestion boxes to phase in the “What To Fix” campaign.
The suggestion boxes, which are about the size of a ballot box, are a new iteration of an old idea. The WTF boxes are created for students to share their complaints, suggestions, and comments with the Student Senate who will then acknowledge and try to address the issues.
“The leaders of the college want to do things for the students, but they don’t want to sit around and guess what the students want, so we’re here to tell them what the students want and to make sure that they’re being treated fairly,” says SLCCSA Executive Vice President and President of Student Senate, Chase Larson. “I feel like we hold a lot of power in the sense that we bridge the gap between the students and the people that can actually do things around here. In that sense, we make it so that the students are the ones who can get things done.”
To begin this campaign, the Student Senate has commissioned four boxes that are wrapped in an SLCC design. Three of the four boxes will most likely be placed on the Taylorsville Redwood Campus, while the fourth box is being considered for either the South City or Jordan campus.
Depending on the outcome of the initial roll-out, the Student Senate would ultimately like to increase the total number of boxes to eight.
“We’re gonna see how these first four work, and then hopefully if they work for, let’s say, until the end of this semester and the first half of next semester before I’m out of office, then I’d like to get the other four so it doesn’t get lost in translation,” says Larson.
There is a hope that the anonymous nature of the WTF boxes will increase student response.
Prior to these boxes, students could — and still can — email their suggestions to Larson, but wouldn’t have the same level of anonymity that a suggestion box does.
Once the Student Senate has received a suggestion or concern, their goal is to begin addressing the issue within seven business days. Although many issues can’t be solved within a week, they want to pass on the information to the appropriate players and get the ball rolling.
One such suggestion that they’ve been moving on is a possible refrigerated locker system that students could store their food in during the day.
Many students are on campus for large stretches of the day, bringing meals which they then have to carry around. A refrigerated locker would allow students to store their meal in a food-safe manner while on campus.
“We’re actually in the process of getting survey questions done so we can just ensure this is something that students actually want. We want to get about 1,000 [responses] back. We feel like that’ll be enough feedback to decide whether to go forward with it,” says Larson.
To learn more about the WTF campaign and the WTF boxes, students can contact the Chase Larson at chase.larson@slcc.edu or by calling 801-957-3815.
