Eight students, including three Crow’s Nest staff members, turned out to a February forum about accreditation. Low student involvement is nothing new, and campus leaders are struggling to address it. Jonah Hinebaugh | The Crow’s Nest
By Emily Wunderlich
Low student involvement forced Student Government to cancel its bus to Raymond James Stadium for the Sept. 8 football game against Georgia Tech.
“It’s a service we provide only if there’s interest,” said Ysatis Jordan, student body vice president and senior health sciences major.
According to Jordan, only three students signed up for the event on PeteSync. The bus has a capacity of 50. The Sept. 1 bus to the game against Elon University had a turnout of 28.
Although SG used flyers and social media to promote the bus, senior biology major Shawn McCort said it wasn’t enough.
“USFSP has so much potential, but the lack of marketing for things like this is atrocious,” he said. “It seems like certain people are more concerned with getting SG on their resume but shy away when there’s actual work to be done.”
Asked about how SG could improve its marketing, McCort said, “I don’t work for free.”
Low student involvement has long been a challenge for the predominantly commuter campus. Of the 4,908 students enrolled at USF St. Petersburg last year, 359 voted in the student body general election and 148 participated in intramural sports.
For organizations that plan events on campus, those numbers can be costly.
Each student pays an Activities and Services fee of $25.63 per credit hour, or $307.56 for a full-time semester of 12 credits. Those fees fund the $3.3 million budget that SG oversees every year.
According to the budget last updated in February, $14,668 is allocated for Stampete, SG’s new school spirit committee. Stampete’s budget set aside $5,000 for athletics buses.
SG planned buses to four home football games this season. Each trip would cost about $1,100: $700 for the bus, $300 for the tailgating spot and $100 for food.
SG has a contract with Holiday Coach Lines Inc. Every time the organization rents a bus, it must make an invoice with Holiday for that amount. The company then withdraws that amount from SG’s balance in the contract.
Tim Oetinger, fiscal and business specialist for the university, oversees all purchases made by campus organizations.
When Oetinger was contacted by The Crow’s Nest, the invoice for the Sept. 8 bus had already been processed, but Oetinger said he was going to cancel it right away.
Had the invoice not been canceled, SG would have had to foot the $1,100 bill for a bus that was never used.
Although Stampete would be responsible for planning the bus tailgates to football games, Jordan said the task fell mostly on her because the committee does not have an executive director.
Once SG fills that position, Jordan hopes to promote more school pride initiatives, like “spirit police” who will point out students wearing memorabilia from other universities and encourage them to change.
Jordan said involvement is what anchors students to the campus and allows them to balance their academic and personal lives.
“If student life was not important to our students, they’d be at (St. Petersburg College),” McCort said.
SG has two more buses scheduled to home football games this season: Sept. 22 and Oct. 20. To register for the bus or apply for executive director of Stampete, visit SG’s page on PeteSync.
Why would calling out students for wearing other school’s merchandise be the solution to this problem? What they need is more engaging marketing or a new tactic for USFSP school spirit. If no one cares about going to the football game put that money to better use, maybe to hire a marketing team to focus on up-ing student involvement.
I can’t believe I’m reading this right after the SG fired the one person willing to fill the position. You saw how well they did with the first bus and now that they’re gone the turnout died almost instantly. I’m just saying that might be a sign for you SG, you guys messed up.