University of Washington

Valerie Fetzer, Rick Young

SAO Graduate Assistants
24 May 2022

Demographics
Student Survey Results & Analysis

Leadership Development

1a)

Above we can see that there is a heavy preference in students to reach out to an SAO advisor
or another on campus advisor when they are seeking leadership development tools. Not too far
behind, we also notice that they like to visit the internet for other resources as opposed to the
SAO website. However, 22% of those surveyed prefer visiting the SAO website above all. That
said, we see a real opportunity in providing more resources on the SAO website. Moreover, this
data shows that most students trust their advisors for advice on leadership development and
would like that information delivered in a more accessible way.

1b)

What we have noticed is that most surveyed students would like more support in event
planning, managing resources, and basic fiscal management. While all topics are important, the
top three priorities students would like to see, we view as most aligned with professional
development and logistical implementation. Thus, this reminds us that many student leaders are
looking to draw connections from their RSO experiences to their professional leadership
pursuits. Part of guiding capable leaders is giving them ample resources that are streamlined for
easy reference, which ultimately alleviates the questions often directed to SAO advisors.

1c) Below is a copy of our written responses for the question:

Aside from officer transition guides, what other tools, resources are available to you and
other officers to support your group's leadership?

1. The RSO resource center is invaluable to us and should be expanded and improved further.
2. Consitution/bylaws & Huskylink
3. I do not know
4. color printing
5. Our group is very self-sufficient and student run, so we follow the resources left to us by
previous officers.
6. I'm not entirely sure, but I know there are a lot of policies and guidelines on the HUB website to
help RSO officer teams know what boundaries and resources exist for their activities (such as
free room reservations).
7. I usually email my SAO Advisor for assistance
8. My RSO Advisor, ECC
9. Law School resources
10. We generally communicate with the SAO for financial needs.
11. The funding options have been incredibly helpful for us.
12. Booths supplies rental
13. How to make events and meetings more accessible to everyone
14. Not a lot. The SAO's resources page mainly contains lots of rules on compliance for RSOs as
compared to actually helpful suggestions on how to run one.
15. I am not sure, there wasn't much information regarding to becoming an officer for the club that
I had to deal with.
16. grants maybe but they fill up fast and have kind of a low yearly limit.
17. My RSO advisor
18. I don't know of any other resources because my group never received other support materials
and didn't know how to access them.
19. Unfortunately I have yet to explore more resources provided. The most often used resource is
funding.
20. Fundraising guides and general leadership turnover documents
21. i have no idea
22. Student relationships
23. I have no idea
24. Haven't looked into the resources
25. We don't really utilize the resources from SAO at all.
26. I have no idea what y’all do
27. None
28. RSO Resource Center
29. If we could make a chat or a single point of contact for all RSOs/events on
campus/organizations, we can better share more events and connect more students!
→ Themes from Responses:
- RSO resource center
- RSO advisor
- Other advisors and schools for assistance
- Unsure

Registration Processes

2a)

Again, we see another instance where students trust their advisors for information when
navigating this process. Additionally, we see a preference towards accessibility to registration
information online.

2b)
As further research suggests, the registration process can pose a very confusing and
bureaucratic process. Above, we see heavy favoritism towards a desire to having pre-recorded
instructions.

2c)

While over 75% of responses indicated that they did not experience any challenges with
registration this year, 21.4% responded that they did. Below are descriptions of the
challenges some students experienced.

1. Honestly, the RSO registration process is needlessly complicated. We considered giving up on

RSO status for our organization due to the number of requirements that do not provide any
value or benefits for the club - ex: the club charter doc, getting a certain number of students on
the RSO website (when it doesn't provide any tangible benefits), attending a training (that also
 doesn't provide value). Overall, I would encourage you all to simplify, streamline, and reduce
the requirements of being an RSO wherever possible and constantly think about who a given
initiative or requirement provides value to all stakeholders. If not, then it's not in service to the
community.
2. It was another audit year and templets changed and it was brand new to us.
3. Too complicated and unwieldy - make it easier please
4. It was a lot of back and forth in order to push the event through.
5. It was not immediately clear what Covid-19 guidelines needed to be set in place by our RSO
until we were actively filling out forms and scrambling to reserve a meeting space. For
restrictions on registration like this in the future, it would be helpful to give RSO officers more
advance notice on what will be expected of them.
6. Having 5 admins on huskylink. Kind of a bad arbitrary requirement
7. Couldn't use the UW logo for a t-shirt even though the university takes credit when we win
competitions
8. It never seems to work, it always needs intervention. I always need help with it. I don't know
why, nothing has changed
9. Our SAO advisor was not helpful and lead us the wrong way to where we could not plan our
event as we wanted to
10. I don't think they liked our club description
11. Booking a room and equipment wasn't clear cut
12. My application in Fall 2021 was dropped after being processing for 3 weeks.
13. One of our members signed up for 3 credits on accident and only notified us during Week 8..
There was a registrar fee of $20 to change her number of credits back to how many she
actually earned.
14. I heard from past president that our RSO registration took way too long at the beginning of this
school year to be approved.

Themes from Responses:

- Overcomplicated
- Time consuming
- Unclear expectations and guidelines

Funding Processes
3a)
Again, we can see that there is a heavy preference for students to go towards their SAO adviser
or the SAO website when they have a question about funding. Sometimes, they even email the
SAO office, which is then often redirected towards the adviser.
3b)

While most students did not face any challenges while requesting funding this year, a significant
portion did experience difficulties. In the next question, we analyze some of those barriers they
faced.
3c) Below is a copy of our written responses for the question:

If yes, please provide a brief explanation/description of the issue.

1. where can we get money for food for events or meetings and just basic things that make
meetings more fun

2. my confusion as to how
3. Not an issue with SAO but rather a lack of funding for food for events which we would have
liked to have this past year.

4. We applied for funding in Fall Quarter, but our application was not heard until the Spring, as it
was a Spring quarter event. This put considerable stress on us and caused delays and
confusion in our planning process.

5. Bureaucracy
a. 1. took quite a while to get our funding approved -- in past years, we have been able to
get our spring event fully funded in the fall, but this year we were waiting up until just a
few weeks before the event, which is long after we've started marketing for the event
and after we needed to have a lot of our materials printed. This makes it difficult to
advertise ASUW on our materials and difficult for us to be certain of what resources
we can have access to for our large annual event. It's sometimes frustrating and
confusing to have to wait so long for access to funds.
b. 2. SAO discontinued a service we generally rely on every year and we found out only
when we attempted to make the request and it was denied. This was quite a hassle.
As a student heavily invested in RSOs, it's so frustrating when the university continues
to cut our access to funds -- it really limits what we are able to achieve. I understand
that this is a UW problem and not a SAO problem, but I think there is a general sense
among RSO leaders that we would really appreciate some advocacy on our behalf
when our funds keep getting cut. I feel helpless to make change here.

6. We attempted to plan a large event this Spring, and even though we submitted our materials
very early, were not given a hearing for our funding until Spring quarter despite beginning
planning in the Fall. It was extremely stressful to constantly be wondering whether we would
even be able to run our event given that the SAO insisted on pushing our appointment with
ASUW further and further back, to the point that we barely even got funding in time for items to
arrive via shipping.
a. Additionally, the SAO office granted our organization money for one of the HUB
awards last year, but prevented us from spending it in ways we attempted to do so
 that were single payments of large amounts of money that would have put little
burden on the SAO office. It was frustrating to be awarded money for our RSO's
amazing work and then not even be able to spend it due the SAO's arbitrary rules
literally made up on the spot.

7. Too many RSO's were requesting funding and we were not aware of how the process was
supposed to go.

8. we hosted an event that required more approval because there was not a previous event like it
that would act as a comparison for funding

9. difficult to complete, money ran out, guidelines not super clear

10. Funding for RSO was cut by 50% this year!
11. Issues with getting reimbursed timely and lack of follow through and communication.
12. i didnt know we could request funding
13. Didn't get very much funding and needed external sponsors
14. We received little funding because we were told about the deadlines too late
15. I think there was some difficulty in getting the quotes updated and sent out. It lead to a time
delay in getting a payment to a performer at our event

→ Themes

- Frustrations with bureaucracy

- Miscommunication/ lack of communication in funding changes/ cuts
- Little follow up on approvals
- Not knowing how get funding for food for meetings and events

3d)
We can see that there is strong desire for students to have a more robust online application
process. Furthermore, our data suggests that the funding process is a highly bureaucratic and
decentralized process. Therefore, having pre-recorded information on the website can help
create a more streamlined process for RSO’s.

Recommendations in Student Interactions w/ Processes

Leadership Development

1. Walk through website with RSO leadership during their first intake meetings
a. Right now, many students are unaware that there are leadership development
tools on the website
b. Send reminders on a regular cadence via Huskylink that directs students to
leadership development tools
2. Add Basic Fiscal Management, Managing Resources on SAO website
3. Include Assertiveness Training in Conflict Mediation
4. Consider outsourcing training materials for website
a. TED talks, training research videos, small snippets that students can engage with
online
b. Send reminders out via Huskylink when there is new content added

Registration

1. Online video walk through detailing every step in the registration process.
2. Send out regular huskylink reminders containing upcoming registration deadlines and
requirements.
 3. Be intentional about pushing live registration sessions with RSO’s that have had trouble
in the past.
a. This will streamline the process and stop the continued misinterpretation of
requirements.

Funding

1. Create a general decision tree detailing which department to reach out to based on
funding requests.
2. Create an anonymous feedback file so that students can share thoughts and ideas for
improvement.