Directorate gives students chance to take charge

If you are one of the 14,000 people passing through the Union’s doors each day, and if while you there have enjoyed music on the Terrace, strolled through a Union art gallery, attended a performance at the Union Theater, taken a minicourse, read Illumination and Emmie magazines, learned something at a Distinguished Lecture or had a sailing lesson from Hoofers, you need to thank one of the hard-working student volunteers from WUD, the Wisconsin Union Directorate.

Some 300 student programmers are in charge of brainstorming and then implementing more than 1,000 events each year. And a whopping 2,000 or so outdoors enthusiasts are involved in planning Hoofers activities. All these students make the Union a magnet for the campus and community. They also become leaders while honing professional skills (organization, public speaking, communication, working collaboratively, delegating, etc.), skills that flummox many adults who have been at it for years.

These students aren’t in charge in name only; their responsibilities are considerable. In addition to running programming, they have oversight for an annual budget of more than $600,000, make buying decisions, negotiate contracts and are ultimately responsible for WUD activities.

The level of responsibility goes even higher for the four WUD officers who, because of the positions they hold, are also voting members of the Union Council, which reports to the Board of Regents through the chancellor. The council determines the scope of Union programs, services, policies and operations — pretty high-stakes duties for students to take on.

The student programmers, however, aren’t facing all this on their own. Each of the 11 committees that make up WUD has a staff adviser. The advisers function much like a faculty member — they challenge and inspire the students to accept responsibility and use their talents for the benefit of the campus. As advisers, they don’t give the students answers; the students do the work. The steering wheel belongs to the students, but the advisers have a hand close by for guidance when it is needed.

All this activity and programming has an academic and administrative label. Under campus structure, the Wisconsin Union makes up the Division of Social Education for UW–Madison. The title “social education” may sound dated, concerned more with lessons in etiquette and comportment than building future leaders, but that is not the case, says Susan Dibbell, assistant director of social education: “For the students, the learning outcomes and critical thinking skills are life-changing and often translate to a future job or internship. They learn how to run meetings, facilitate, manage difficult people, motivate volunteers and how to work within a bureaucracy.”

That learning outside the classroom can prepare students for jobs has been well documented in research, but for the students, the value of those leadership experiences can take a while to sink in. “Students often don’t realize how much they learned until after they graduate. They also have more success in their academic and professional careers by building stronger connections to their majors through their WUD experience,” says Dibbell.

Indeed, the students’ take-away experiences mirror many of the university’s goals and learning outcomes for students, such as skills in critical and creative thinking, communication, teamwork and collaboration, problem solving, committing to civic engagement, and meeting real-world challenges.

This good work is not new. Student engagement through Union activities runs deep in the university’s history and mission — all the way back to 1904 with President Charles Van Hise, according to Ted Crabb, emeritus director of the Union. “Van Hise saw the value of students and faculty being together outside the classroom, an educational philosophy from English universities that placed high value on students and faculty getting together outside the classroom. It encouraged daily close companionship among students and instructors,” says Crabb. “We didn’t have that here, but he was visionary and that idea of out-of-class learning set the stage for the Union.”

Crabb believes the need for getting students and faculty together is critical, especially as it gets more difficult. In the past, most students lived in university housing, fraternities, sororities and university-supervised off-campus housing. Today, most live off campus independently and connect with the university only through their college, school or department. There is little opportunity for an engineering student to meet an art student. “The Union brings people together. WUD works harder than ever to create campus community,” says Crabb. “The Wisconsin Union is the envy of many universities for the lakefront, theater and level of student involvement here.”

And despite changes in programming interests and desires, “WUD is going wherever students will take it,” says Crabb.

Dibbell, too, has an eye to WUD’s future while keeping track of the bustling present. “We are rich in tradition here with our programming, but we must be responsive to change, stay relevant to our loyal audiences and bring in new customers,” says Dibbell. “We need to invest in and engage with our WUD leaders. They are so sharp and are the best of the best.”

Did you know?

• Hoofers is the largest all-inclusive outing club at any university.
• WUD’s 11 programming committees:
  • Alternative Breaks
  • Art Distinguished
  • Lecture Series
  • Film
  • Global Connections
  • Music
  • Publications
  • Society and Politics
  • Student Performance
  • Union Theater
  • Hoofers