In December, I sat down with former Student Government (then called the Student Confederation) president, Neal Sharma, to swap stories. Over the decade that separates our tenures, a lot has changed at AU - much of it for better. The Student Health Center has improved; AU is becoming a more culturally inclusive campus, and the library has become much more than a place that stores books.
One thing that seems to have not changed, however, is the AUTO program. Ten years ago, AUTO had problems with reliability. Ten years ago, AUTO was strained to meet the demand of usage. There is very little different today, except for maybe a much heavier demand on the program, as more organizations rely on AUTO for practices, meetings and competitions.
For too long, AUTO hasn’t been serving students to its potential. We are working to fix that. Unfortunately so much needs fixing that we have had to, as The Eagle put it, hit the pause button. When the program starts coming back on line on Monday, I am sure you will see the difference. Here are the areas we have identified to improve and how we are going to do it.
Write a policy manual: AUTO has been driving without directions for some time. That has created an inherent lack of continuity in management and procedures every time a new person takes over the program. With set procedures, students should experience less confusion as they use the program, because, frankly, we’ll know exactly how to run the program. Even better, the AUTO commissioner another 10 years from now will have the same policies to guide them through the program. The policies have already been drafted and sent out for university approval.
Improve responsiveness: It’s 11 p.m.; you are returning your key, but the key box isn’t working. Who do you call? When I was personally overseeing the program in September, I gave out my cell number, and we’re going to continue that idea with an AUTO phone. We used to have an AUTO worker on-call 24/7, but that fell through somewhere along the way. We will be bringing that back so you will always have help. You have also asked for a more personalized certification process, which we have already started implementing.
Replace and repair faulty equipment: Like I said above, the key box doesn’t work sometimes. At the moment, in fact, it does not work at all. We are working with the company who makes the software to improve the service. All of our vans are also sitting with vehicle maintenance waiting for repairs to make sure your driving experience is stress-free. And for those of you worried about directions, we have purchased three GPS systems that will be available to rent.
Safety: Students and administrators have brought concerns about safe driving. We are creating a new billing structure that will provide financial incentives for safe drivers.
Andy MacCracken is the President of AU Student Government and a guest columnist for this issue of The Eagle. You can contact him at president@ausg.org.
