Whitewater Student Government officials said Saturday they’ll strive to improve this year by implementing new policies.

WSG Vice President John Jensen said the organization aims to boost and encourage student involvement by establishing an office open-door policy.
“We’re here to serve the 11,000 students that make up Whitewater,” Jensen said.  “Students are always more than welcome to come talk to us about any problem and we’d be more than happy to try and help as best as we can with their concern.”

Patrick Johnson, WSG president, said the organization also plans to be more active in promoting and working with campus organizations and clubs to establish more student involvement.
Johnson said student involvement is an important aspect WSG plans to focus on this year.
“There already is a large amount of active involvement throughout our campus but there could always be more,” he said. “It’s just important to build yourself and build your character around other people because you’ll get multiple views and multiple ideas not sitting in your dorm room but inside meetings and discussions even if it’s on a social level.”

Jensen said being involved now is an important step for students’ futures.
“We’re all here to get a career after college and you can’t really put ‘sat around and did nothing’ on your résumé,” he said.  “Putting something nice on your résumé, a leadership position, even being part of an organization is great to put on a résumé.”
Johnson said WSG is also currently working on a project called “Multi-Student Outreach Day” where students will have the opportunity to discuss important campus topics like hate crimes and diversity.
“We are one of the most diverse campuses in the UW System, so it is important we tap into students thoughts and ideas,” Johnson said.

Jensen said WSG will also be promoting the student organization database, JOIN, over the next year.  The website provides information on various student organizations.
“JOIN is a nice helpful tool for students to look at organizations to be involved in,” Johnson said.  “So if we [WSG] can point them in the right direction, we’re starting out on the right foot here and meeting our goals, ” Jensen said.
Johnson said though students haven’t shown much interest in JOIN, he feels it’s because lack of awareness.
“We want to be one of the first one’s to really take on JOIN, to really promote it,” Johnson said.
Johnson said student involvement is part of what shapes the experiences students have at UW-Whitewater.

“If you can get involved on campus in anyway, that’s what’s going to make your experience on a campus beautiful,” Johnson said.
Johnson said one of the organization’s other goals for the academic year is to increase student awareness of current issues and legislation in Wisconsin.
“With a major election coming up in the next year, it’s important we get students out to understand what topics are going to be hot and what positions big people are taking,” Johnson said.
Jensen said students probably don’t think about it on an average day, but the controversy over the budget-repair bill was a wake-up call for many students.
“I think something students realized late January, early February, was that what happens on the state level and what happens on the national level actually affects what happens here,” Jensen said.
Johnson said WSG is looking into setting up small-group forums for students to discuss local topics and become more involved in current local issues.