The best way to gather student opinions is to get them straight from the source.

With that in mind, Athletic Director Jaime Pollard created the Athletic Director Advisory Committee, a group of representatives from campus organizations that will serve as the main channel of communication between students and the athletic department.

“In both my previous two stops, at Maryland and Wisconsin, we had a really good working relationship with our students,” Pollard said.

“We wanted to be able to implement that here.”

Pollard heads the meetings, which will meet monthly, allowing the committee to share its ideas and opinions.

Its purpose is to promote discussion and to aid decision-making.

Members of the group include a representative from the Government of the Student Body, Cyclone Alley, the Student-Athlete Advisory Council, the greek community and the Student Alumni Association.

“There are a lot of things that happen in the athletics department that impact students,” he said. “We wanted to get a good cross-section, so that there aren’t surprises to students, and there aren’t surprises to us.”

The committee has already met twice, and has discussed topics such as student ticket prices, improving the game-day environment at athletic events and the newly added end-zone seats at Jack Trice Stadium.

“One of the biggest challenges that we are trying to address is that we were sold out of student tickets, but the students weren’t coming to games,” Pollard said. “That’s a concern.”

Jamie Harpenau, co-chairwoman and Cyclone Alley representative, said the committee says a lot about Pollard.

“It’s something we’re not all used to here,” she said. “He values the students and how they react. We’ve got to go out to our friends and teachers and get their opinions.”

Steve Malchow, director of communications for the athletic department, said the committee can’t go wrong.

“It will be a win-win proposition,” Malchow said. “It gives us a chance to learn. It gives the students a chance to speak through a variety of representatives to talk to us.”

The concept reflects the attitude of the leadership of the department.

“Since Jaime [Pollard] has been here, he has always thought that it has been important to have some sort of communication with the students,” Malchow said. “We are an academic institution. Our athletic program, like all of our colleges, is for the benefit of all the students. So it’s really important to get feedback.

“We need to find out what the students think, find out what they like.”

Although it meets monthly, the group is designed so it can be assembled on short-notice if necessary.

“Things in our environment change so quickly, and opportunities come before you so quickly that you need to take action quickly,” Malchow said.

“But you also want to take action with ideas fully thought out. This shows how important the students are for this operation.”