ACTIVITY 1:
Who’s around?

STEP II. Interviews

Note: Optional- but you may want to return to this later

Doing interviews is important for building relationships with key people on campus and understanding where are the leverage points for change; but it requires much more time. Those who are simply doing a one-day mapping/assessment should skip to Activity II. You may want to return to this later as you talk with people around campus about student voice and involvement.

After the initial mapping, the next step is to do one-to-one interviews with some of the people you identified, probably 2-3 people per person This can seem intimidating, but the stakeholders you identified are most often excited to talk with people about their work, especially students. It is also an essential aspect of understanding power on campus, building allies, and seeing how to accomplish your goal (which could range from hosting a dialogue, to getting more students to join your organization, to getting your university to pay a living wage to workers on campus). The following are questions to ask your identified stakeholders:

• How did you first become involved in your work (depending on how the person is identified as a stakeholder, this can be made more specific to the organization or civic engagement work this person is doing)?

• What drives you to be involved?

• How can we increase student involvement and voice on campus?

• What changes would you like to see on campus or in the broader community? Do you think change is possible?

• Who else do you know that is working on these issues?

Be sure to follow-up on interesting answers and observations. Build on what your interviewee has already said, rather than following a set script of questions. An interviewee who feels listened to is likely to talk more than someone who feels ignored. People like to talk about their work, especially with students, so this activity, while sometimes scary, should be fun and meaningful. Try to get to know what motivates this person to be involved and how this person might be enlisted as an ally in your efforts on campus.