Between the experience and the connections often developed by being involved in a university community, some wonder why there are not more students actively joining student groups.
For Alex Steed, sophomore linguistics major, taking classes at the University is only one part of getting an education. He believes taking part in student groups is important to his education.
“I think some people think of it [classes] as resume building, but you can’t say you’re educated at a university if you just take classes.” Steed said. Steed works at WMPG part time, has his own media company called Angioplasty Media, which is working with WMPG to release a double vinyl album and is working on starting a student group for political activism.
WMPG is an extremely visible part of the University, with listeners all over the Greater Portland area. James Rand, station manager of WMPG, said the radio station has one of the highest levels of participation on the campus. He credits the station’s highigh visibility in the community and their policy of making it easy to participate as a DJ or otherwise. He said even though participation is good, they could always use more students and “Frequently we have programs people don’t apply for, sometimes two or three.”
When questioned about levels of student participation, Ezekiel Kimball, chair of the Student Senate said, “It isn’t what it should be, but it’s growing.” He said USM faces a challenge in student involvement, because it has a large population of non-traditional students who might be less likely to take as active a role in the University. Kimball also said USM should “Find a way to reward very involved students out of high school.” He says many students who participated in high school come to the University and do not join student groups.
Time is also a problem for students. The Student Senate knows this as well as any student group as they are having a hard time filling empty seats on the Senate.
“We have people interested, but their schedule hasn’t been compatible with ours,” said Jeremy Collette, a student senator.
Joseph Austin, dean of student life, said for those who become involved in student groups the rewards are worth the work. “We know the more students are involved outside the classroom, the better they tend to do.”
Kathleen Pease, coordinator of the student senate, said putting hard work into a student group offers opportunities students who don’t participate never get, be it meeting people or gaining experience as a leader. She said this year she has been organizing SOOT (Student Organization Officer Training) meetings to train student organizers in leadership, recruitment and financial responsibility skills.
Pease said student participation has grown over the past few years. She hopes this growth will continue over time. Getting students to join can be difficult though.
“It’s an ongoing issue. Recruitment is one of the hardest things.” Pease continued, “It’s the students that do put in the work that get the rewards.”
In an online survey conducted by The Free Press, 43 percent of those polled said they were involved in a student group, 43 percent said they were not involved and 14 percent said they were not students.