Survey by SAB provides students chance to be heard

Students will have the chance to make their voices heard and shape the who, what where and when of all Student Activities Board events by taking a survey next se­mester, according to the assistant dean of student activities, Mariel Pagan.

Next semester, SAB will have a mar­keting committee, a group of students spe­cifically focused on promotion of what the SAB offers. Information from the end-of-the-semester survey is an integral part of the event selection process, Pagan said.

"We are hoping to build on our success and bring it to the next level," Pagan said.

The informally named "end of the se­mester survey," created by Pagan and Stu­dent Voice, helps convey student concerns about past events and gives the SAB the opportunity to answer questions.

Student Voice is an outsider company that focuses on creating effective surveys for students.

Last semester, students who took the survey wanted more events held on Fri­days, according to Pagan. In response, the SAB now hosts "Free Flick Fridays," a free movie night held weekly for SHU students and non students in the Main Lounge of the University Center.

Following each event, students can par­ticipate in the "iPod Touch survey" and comment or give feedback on specific events right after they occur, Pagan said.

The survey is a virtually new concept for the committee, with only two previous distributions, so the SAB uses a number of techniques to encourage student par­ticipation.

Before the survey's release, SAB members hold a "poster campaign," dur­ing which fliers informing students of the survey's upcoming release are plastered all over campus.

The SAB has a Facebook and a Twit­ter page, both geared toward promoting events and surveys. After the survey's release, members of the committee tweet about results of the survey to show stu­dents "we really are listening," Pagan said.

In conjunction with the Student Ac­tivities Fee included in every student's tuition, Seton Hall University offers a portion of its budget for SAB-organized events. The survey helps the committee organize events guaranteed to have a large turnout, which optimizes the SAB's use of the budget.

Lindsay Ireland can be reached at lindsay.ireland@student.shu.edu