The N.C. State Student Organizations Resource Center is no more. Starting this year, the center has been renovated into a new umbrella unit called Student Involvement.
“We wanted to create a new unit that better supported our student organizations in particular,” Eileen Coombes, director of Student Involvement, said.
Student Involvement is the result of a year and a half’s worth of discussions, according to Coombes. In April 2013, the group united Student Government, Union Activities Board and all 600 on-campus organizations.
The inception of Student Involvement comes in tandem with the newly renovated Talley Student Union. When the Talley renovations are complete, the Student Involvement center is set to be relocated there.
“We still offer the same resources currently [as SORC], but we’re trying to build beyond them,” Coombes said. “The reason we dissolved the name was because we wanted to rebrand how we work with organizations. We wanted organizations to see us beyond just permits and registration.
“We just felt like this was a good opportunity to start new, especially with the new Talley holding the Student Involvement center. We really just wanted to capitalize on that opportunity.”
Another reason Student Involvement started is that it promotes collaboration and cohesiveness between student organizations at N.C. State – especially between the Union Activities Board and Student Government.
“They see these two very large organizations on campus that are doing a lot of good, and why not bring them closer together,” Kelsey Mills, a senior in computer and electrical engineering and the Student Senate President of Student Government, said. “Putting us together made it a lot easier to share our resources and help students more. I think, in the end, it’s just a better way to make sure we’re serving the students the best by being able to share those resources.”
Instead of having separate advisors for each organization, the groups all share the same advisors and resources.
Union Activities Board and Student Government are the two biggest organizations on campus, according to Coombes, so Student Involvement is doing its best to make use of their size.
“One of the things we’re trying to help them understand this year is that, even though their missions are slightly different in how they reach out to students, both of them have the same goal in impacting the student experience at N.C. State,” Coombes said. “So they can really compliment each other in a lot of ways. They have different ways in outreaching to students, so they can really use each other’s strengths to have a larger impact across all 33,000 students on campus.”
Leaders in the two large organizations understand their identities have not changed, but that there is more potential for collaboration between groups, according to Coombes.
“Student Government and UAB are still separate entities because Student Government is more of the policies and legislations and not as much of the event planning, which is what UAB does,” Mills said. “We have two very separate things that we do, but now we’re closer together, so we can work closer together on the things that we do that are bigger.”
According to David Meyer, senior in psychology and vice president of UAB, Student Government and UAB kicked off their new relationship with a collaboration for Shack-a-Thon.
According to Meyer, the groups also worked together to plan the campout at the PNC Arena.
“Campout is a historic Student Government run event,” Meyer said. “But we started this year having Union Activities Board partner with them. They still run it, do a lot of logistics for it, organize it and get the students there. And then UAB’s strengths, which would be programming for students, would be part of the event.”
Mills said Student Government and UAB are working together to bring back College Cup this year in the spring as well.
“Right now, we’re really trying to figure out what we can do with Student Involvement,” Mills said. “It’s really great because there’s so much potential right now on what we can and can’t do. So, we’re really looking forward to working with them and getting things going.”
The new umbrella unit is reaching out to help and advise students who are unsure of how or where to connect on campus.
“We really want to make student organizations find value in their work here at the university and find the support they need to be successful,” Coombes said. “It’s a huge challenge, but one we’re excited about and embracing. Hopefully students will feel comfortable reaching out to us too if they’re not sure where to go.”
