We recently had the opportunity to interview a student leader from the University of Iowa Student Government about Iowa Ideas, their innovative new program to get the student body to share ideas about campus problems and how to fix them.
Please tell us your name and current position in student government. Please also tell us a little bit about who you are: your year, major, any other background info you’d like to share.
My name is Jeffrey Ding and I am the Vice President of the University of Iowa Student Government. I am a junior studying political science, economics, and Chinese. I was born in Shanghai, China, and moved to the United States when I was three.
How did you get involved in UISG?
I was chosen as a freshman senator (five spots are reserved for first-years), so I was able to get involved right away.
Please describe Iowa Ideas. What does it do?
Iowa Ideas is a crowd-sourced idea generation site, which functions as a “Reddit” for initiatives to improve the University of Iowa. Anyone affiliated with the University of Iowa can contribute ideas to the site and vote up other ideas they think would be good to implement.
How does the site function?
The site uses software from IdeaScale. We worked very closely with University ITS to set up the site.
Where did the idea come from for Iowa Ideas?
Other schools, like Dartmouth, had implemented similar programs, so the previous student administration began to look into the concept.
What are some of the new ideas that have been proposed on the website? Does UISG plan to pursue any of them?
Some ideas that have been proposed on the site include apartment recycling, mandatory diversity training programs, painting certain tunnels with the faces of prominent alumni, and a majors fair. These ideas have been very well-received and UISG plans to pursue all of them. In fact, we just launched an apartment recycling petition which has received around 1500 signatures.
What have been the biggest challenges so far with this project? Biggest surprises? Lessons learned?
The biggest challenge has been people who don’t take the project seriously and make disparaging comments about certain ideas. Developing a consistent base of people who use the site has also been difficult.
What advice would you give to student leaders at other schools who want to establish a similar website?
Give moderator status for monitoring the site to people who will actively promote the initiatives.
We recently had the opportunity to interview a student leader from the University of Iowa Student Government about Iowa Ideas, their innovative new program to get the student body to share ideas about campus problems and how to fix them.
Please tell us your name and current position in student government. Please also tell us a little bit about who you are: your year, major, any other background info you’d like to share.
My name is Jeffrey Ding and I am the Vice President of the University of Iowa Student Government. I am a junior studying political science, economics, and Chinese. I was born in Shanghai, China, and moved to the United States when I was three.
How did you get involved in UISG?
I was chosen as a freshman senator (five spots are reserved for first-years), so I was able to get involved right away.
Please describe Iowa Ideas. What does it do?
Iowa Ideas is a crowd-sourced idea generation site, which functions as a “Reddit” for initiatives to improve the University of Iowa. Anyone affiliated with the University of Iowa can contribute ideas to the site and vote up other ideas they think would be good to implement.
How does the site function?
The site uses software from IdeaScale. We worked very closely with University ITS to set up the site.
Where did the idea come from for Iowa Ideas?
Other schools, like Dartmouth, had implemented similar programs, so the previous student administration began to look into the concept.
What are some of the new ideas that have been proposed on the website? Does UISG plan to pursue any of them?
Some ideas that have been proposed on the site include apartment recycling, mandatory diversity training programs, painting certain tunnels with the faces of prominent alumni, and a majors fair. These ideas have been very well-received and UISG plans to pursue all of them. In fact, we just launched an apartment recycling petition which has received around 1500 signatures.
What have been the biggest challenges so far with this project? Biggest surprises? Lessons learned?
The biggest challenge has been people who don’t take the project seriously and make disparaging comments about certain ideas. Developing a consistent base of people who use the site has also been difficult.
What advice would you give to student leaders at other schools who want to establish a similar website?
Give moderator status for monitoring the site to people who will actively promote the initiatives.