Commuter Organization

Aubrey Muegge, Lauren Riley, Emma Taylor, Niccola Pelicano

Commuter Research and Analysis

Situation Analysis

Analyzing the environment

• Commuters feel there is a lack of accessible resources and on-campus involvement. A sense of belonging is absent from this shortfall. The ASC is loud and noisy and often crowded with residence students coming to meet for groups, selling things for their organizations, eating, and even events that take place. The library is so secluded as well as a quiet place. Limitations as such enable commuters to socialize with other commuters and meet on-campus students in a comfortable environment. 

Analyzing the organization

• There is currently commuter coffee and pastry socials, lunch socials, lockers and an abandoned webpage on the TLU website as well as a transfer and commuter tab on connect@tlu. The existence of the current resources and activities is poorly distributed to commuters, with limited spaces. 

Analyzing stakeholders and public

• Commuters: lack a designated space to gather between or after classes, pour communication between the universities commuter programmes and the commuters, feel that most events on-campus are exclusive to certain groups or organizations, unaware and out of the loop of some important information, lack interaction and relationship with other students 
• On-Campus students: lack of relationship with commuters, populate social areas or return to the comfort of their dorm, have establishes clicks 
• Samara Lopez: full-time staff director of campus programmes; managing current commuter resources/socials, manages budget 
• Parents: concerned about the lack of engagement with students and the university, concerned about their students always having to spend money to eat on campus or skipping meals because there is no where to store food 

Identifying the specific problems/opportunities that need to be addressed 

• Lack of space for commuters to have a quiet place to study or relax between classes. The library and ASC just isn’t enough. There is the issue of scheduled event being directed towards residents living on campus that seem to exclude the commuters. Along with these initial problems, the programs and event put in place for commuters, are limited in RSVP space. There are only 60 spots open and 529 total commuters. And not all of these lunches or breakfasts are free, as the other events for other students are. 

Strategy

• Establish an Organization 
• Improve communication through the TLU website, connect@tlu commuter and transfer link, create more visually appealing emails 
• Insure that all resources, activities and services are known to the commuters by remaining active our goals and on top of our schedule 

Defining aims and objectives

• Establish a Commuters Organization 
• Provide convenient and accessible commuter resources and activities 
• Integration of on-campus and off-campus students 
• Commuter lounge 

Determining stakeholders/public involved

• Commuters: promote a sense of belonging on-campus, convenient accessible resources and information, increase college success rate, increase student involvement and engagement, intensive for prospective students
• On-Campus students: relationship with commuters, increased number of students on-campus for extended hours 
• Samara Lopez: dedicated full-time staff advisor, would help manage and overlook budget, schedule socials/events
• Higher authority TLU: organization approval, budget approval 
• Maintenance: more cleaning from more students being on-campus longer 
• Parents: interested in the benefits or potential issues 

Identifying content or programme

• Updated web page: including a survival guide; commuter tips, parking information, schedule of events open for commuters, info about lockers, connect@tlu Transfers and Commuters tab, Co-Curricular 
• More lockers 
• Movie on the Lawn 
• Lock In Commuter Sleepover 
• Weekly emails: updates, socials event schedule 
• Parking pass + schedule + car freshener 
• Access to residential halls 
• Student Organization: Establish a commuter-welcome environment on-campus, providing resources and activities enhancing student engagement, integration 
• Clarifying overall strategy and approach
• Implementation /Tactical programme 
• Creating the Commuter Organization 
• Implementing new resources and activities 
• Improving communication between TLU and the commuters 

Resources:

Monthly budget of  $500-600

Timescales:

Month	Event	Date	Budget/ stakeholders $500
January
February
March	Idea was born	Monday, 26
April	Interview with Sam Organize research Research report speech Commuter Lunch	Friday, 13 @ 10:00 am Tuesday, 17 @ 10:00 am Wednesday, 25 @ 11:30 am Thursday, 26 @ 11:00 am
May	Write final speech Final Presentation Apply as a Student Organization	Tuesday, 1 @ 10:00 am Wednesday, 9 @ 8:30 Tuesday, 15 online
June	Completed constitution SGA org. Meeting  Assumed Approval	TBA
July	Complete online registration Make connect@tlu page Officer Orientation Seminar Update webpage Student Orientation	TBA
August	Schedule Socials Plan Movie On the Lawn Prepare Parking pass package Schedule weekly commuters emails Commuter Social	TBA
September	Pastry Social Commuter Social Commuter Social	TBA	$500
October	Commuter social Movie On the Lawn/ Commuter Lock-In Sleepover	TBA	$600
November	Pastry Socail Commuter Socials Pastry Socail	TBA	$500
December	Pastry Social Commuter Social Pastry Social	TBA	$500

Evaluation of Programme

• Surveys concerning the success of the implementations 
• Head-count at socials/events and in the organization 
• Is there an obvious increase number of students on campus for extended hours? 
• Is there an increase of request or campus involvement interests?
• Is there an increase in grades on campus?
• Is the budget being followed?

Dr.Sia’s Commuter Research

• “The socials seem to be an important link to retaining commuter students. In addition to food at the socials, involved commuters interact with other commuters who might be facing the same challenges.” 
• 92% of commuters retained more than the 62% of random residential sample and 53% of uninvolved commuters. “On average, involved commuters attended 2 socials with a range of 1-9 events attended.” 
• “Based on these results we developed a campus-wide initiative to promote the socials more widely to commuters. Step one is to inform the public about the socials. Step two is to showcase the academic advantages of the socials. Step Three is to include Q&A sessions with influential members of the TLU community at the socials.” 

Attended Commuter Lunch

• The turn out was better than anticipated. Arriving, there was a line out the door of Dunn for Davila's: chicken or beef fajitas, corn or flour tortillas, rice, beans, chips, guacamole, taco topping, sweet tea or water and even a cake to finish us off. 
• A Kahoot! was put together to give us some more interaction, asking questions relating to graduation and administration. 
• We had no complaints or suggestions other than that we'd like to have more Commuter lunches. Personally we saw a lot of new faces and had the opportunity to meet new people a eat a meal for $1! 

Current commuter social email:

• Analysis: As you can see this email was sent out the morning of the social at 8:43 and the social began at 9:30. Being commuters, time management is essential and distributing this information at last minute limits the opportunity of attending. The picture itself is not visually appealing and obvious formatting mistakes appear in the bullet points. 
• Needs Improvement: Creating and distributing a schedule at the beginning of the semester would allow a more reasonable opportunity for the commuters to become more involved. Allowing more than thirty commuters to attend lunches, and sending out emails in advance to invite commuters to events. 

How to Become an Organizations
The steps for new organizations are as follows:

1) At least 5 students have to be interested in starting the organization

2) The organization must have a dedicated full-time faculty or staff advisor

3) A constitution/by laws must be submitted to Student Activities for review. Suggestions/changes will be made and discussed at the meeting. See the constitution checklist and sample constitution attachment.

4) Once the constitution is ready, the organization will have to go before SGA for approval 1. For the meeting please have prepared: 1. Completed constitution 2. At least two members of the organization 3. Goals for the organization 

   5) Once SGA has approved, the group can complete the online Registration process through           Connect @ TLUStudent Activities will have to go into Connect @ TLU to create a profile  skeleton before the organization can register online.

   6) Officers must complete an Officer Orientation Seminar with Student Activities

   7) New advisors will need to also complete an advisor seminar