The University of Idaho didn’t always have a strong set of traditions.
The Student Alumni Relations Board (SArb) changed all that when it was founded on campus in 1970, said SArb President Trevor Kauer.
Kauer said the group’s founder noticed there weren’t any traditions or ways to build Vandal pride on campus.
“He started a group called SArb to be able to provide students to kind of cultivate that sense of Vandal pride and tradition and made us who we are now,” Kauer said. “We are a legacy school. We have traditions that a lot of other schools don’t have. Tradition programs have been started here that a lot of other schools have been copying.”
Earlier in August, SArb attended a national conference put on by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) where the group won two national awards. Student advancement groups from schools all over the nation met to collaborate on ideas and competed for the awards, Kauer said.
SArb won awards for Outstanding Organization and Outstanding Student Leader. There are three winners in each category. Kauer said the Outstanding Organization award is given based on how a club runs and what impact it has.
“This is really big for us,” Kauer said. “It means we have large events on campus that we event plan and execute really well. We have lots of participation at our events and they’re making a big difference on our campus.”
The Outstanding Student Leader award went to Emily Rasch, SArb’s Homecoming Chair.
“It’s a huge honor,” Rasch said. “It’s the biggest award you can achieve in the student advancement world.”
Rasch said her work as part of the Homecoming Committee, the tradition keepers’ program and in other leadership roles earned her the award.
“All my hard work over the years and all of our student advancement programs on our campus, it all came together,” Rasch said. “And I feel so honored to have represented the U of I on a national level, really.”
For the judging, schools across the U.S. were divided into eight districts and competed within those districts first. The one winner from each district moved on to compete nationally. SArb competed directly against seven other district winners to achieve the awards it received. At districts, Kauer said SArb won nearly all of the program awards over other schools in the Northwest.
“It’s a bigger deal when you get a national award, but we usually do really well at districts,” Kauer said.
Kauer said the awards serve as encouragement to the organization and a reminder to the students involved to keep up their hard work.
“It’s really satisfactory for us to know that we’re doing a good job on our campus and across the nation that we’re one of the best,” Kauer said.
Jack Olson
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