By Felicia J. Barclay

It’s your first meeting as a Student Government executive with the university president. You arrive on time, dressed appropriately and well-prepared. After the introductions, you immediately begin pushing an agenda and making demands. But it’s obvious that the president isn’t listening. So you move to “Plan B”—chaining yourself to the president’s door and holding a protest in front of the administration building.

Protests may get you media attention, but being respectful and accepting compromise usually gets results. Your first instinct may be to throw rallies or hold protests just to be heard, but there are better ways to express yourself more tactfully with administrators.

“Notoriously on every campus, the reasons students protest and have rallies is because they don’t feel like administrators listen, and sometimes they don’t,” says Steve Wymer, Washington State University’s and perhaps the nation’s first and only three-term Student Government Association president (1998-2001).

While protesting could be an option, it should be your last resort. “Students have many alternatives to direct confrontation as a method to resolve issues, including going directly to the president of the institution,” says William Asbury, vice president for student affairs at Pennsylvania State University . “Students have to be willing to communicate directly before using the media to get the attention of the institution’s leadership.”  E-mailing, informal meetings with administrators, and personal letters are a few ways to start building a relationship with the administration early in your term.

The reality is that “the people who are running the show are the administrators, and you have to work with them,” says Doug Hartz, president of Associated Students at the University of Arizona . “Part of being in this type of position is knowing that you have the responsibility to people to make sure SG is perceived as being competent and dedicated to the university and its students.” Work toward improving SG’s image with the administration. Doing your homework and research before any meeting, improving voter turnout, and making sure students sit on all possible campus committees are strong steps toward gaining credibility.

With some administrators, it’s not always easy to get your point across. They’re used to seeing a new SG president with a new agenda each year. You may think you’re the best student leader your school has ever had, but administrators have heard it all before. Their minds may be made up before you utter a single word. Show that you’re different and willing to compromise by giving administrators three options and alternatives when you make a request, and be ready to accept any of them.

“Essentially, students don’t have the power to make things happen sometimes because the sentiments of a campus community are being relayed through one or two people in SG to the administration,” Wymer says. “It also doesn’t help that students don’t vote, students don’t participate in campus activities, students don’t voice their concerns to the right people, and, most importantly, students often take the wrong approach.”

“It’s important for student leaders to recognize that universities are large organizations,” says Karen Kenney, dean of students at the University of California, Berkeley . Not surprisingly, administrators are busy people. Although you may feel that new bike racks or cheaper football tickets should be the school’s top priority, it may take some time for administrators to get to your concerns because they have other problems. “It’s important for students to understand and to have realistic time frames for achieving goals and realistic timelines and benchmarks for achieving pieces of the goal,” she says. Kenney, who has been dean for 25 years, also says that student leaders should make an effort to understand the life and role of an administrator. Even the president reports to the board of trustees and has priorities and directives that demand her attention. Your project probably falls toward the bottom of her “to do” list.

By building a good relationship, you’ll cut through bureaucratic red tape. Issues will be easier to resolve when communication is flowing open and free. Arriving on time to meetings, getting to know each administrator individually, and letting them know who you are and what your goals are for the year are all ways to earn respect and be taken seriously.

Of course, both sides must agree to work together to build this relationship. Some administrators just aren’t going to support your cause.  You should try to get their opinion up front through candid discussions. Why break your back when nothing will ever come of it? “Both the administrators and the students have to have a real commitment to collaboration, communication, and relationship building,” Kenney says. “One of the key aspects is that those relationships need to be formed before a controversial issue.”

Administrators must be willing to come out of their authoritative shells and open up. “I try to remember the fact that I was a student once too,” says Eugene Zdziarski, dean of students at the University of Florida. “Listening to the students and the students having a voice on what takes place on campus is a critical part of the educational process.”

Once the administrators establish an open-door policy, it makes it easier for students to come with concerns. “I try to be available and open to students and I feel I’ve done my best to make myself accessible and visible,” Zdziarski says. “When I start thinking that I have all the answers, then maybe it’s time for me to move on.”

When a relationship is finally cemented with the administration, there’s no telling how successful SG can be. “In a bureaucracy, you have to establish rapport and relationships and sit down and have discussions,” says Richard Walker, director of Student Life and University Center and SG advisor at the University of Miami [in Florida].  “And you know what, at some point you’ll come together on an issue.”  As a result of good relationship-building, former SG President Jose “Pepi” Diaz gained final approval for a student to be elected as a voting member of UM’s trustees, a rarity among private colleges and universities. “The administration at UM is the backbone of our success,” Diaz says. “The administration fully supported our endeavors to better our school.” He says that every single problem that was brought to his attention was resolved within the academic year. Of Diaz’s administration, Walker says, “They knew how to get things accomplished because they were able to establish good relationships.”

Building good relationships, understanding the role of an administrator, and tactfully dealing with issues instead of leaping to protest will help you work well with administrators this year. And don’t forget—in the real political and business world, protests will just get you fired. “All SGs should try their best to be structured like a real government because it gives students a better experience and because I think it’s a better system for trying to actually make change,” Wymer says.

Contact Wymer at swymerwsu@yahoo.com, Diaz at jfdiaz36@aol.com, Kenney at Kenny@uclink.berkeley.edu, Hartz at hartzd@u.arizona.edu, Zdziarski at genez@ufl.edu, Asbury at wwa1@sa.psu.edu, or Walker at rwalker@miami.edu.