Restructured ASUSU has ups and downs in first semester
With three months remaining in the school year, Utah State University’s student voice – ASUSU – now has just more than a semester worth of experience under its belt since its restructure last spring.
“The great experiment is still going on,” said Stephanie Baldwin, a graduate intern in the ASUSU office and former ASUSU officer. “As with any new structure we look at the past and are looking to the future.”
The 17-member team of student-elected leaders was divided into two groups: the ASUSU Senate and ASUSU Executive Council. One senator is elected from each college only by students in that college. Executive Council members are elected by the student body as a whole.
Since the restructure, many of the officers’ charters were redefined. For example, three of last year’s programming positions were combined into a single role – this year’s programming vice president. The change has been a challenge but a benefit as well, said Laurel Evans, programming vice president. “Anytime you start something from scratch, you have unforeseen obstacles,” Evans said. “This year has more or less been a year of trial and error.”
Baldwin said combining the programming roles was one of the most advantageous aspects of the restructure. Programmers were required to serve as members of the council, attend meetings and worry about legislation. Now the students in charge of activities and programming are represented by one person on the executive council, leaving more time for planning.
For the first time in its 25-year history, tickets sales for the Howl, an annual Halloween party, were regulated to only allow USU students to purchase them in advance for themselves and for their non-USU friends. Evans said the move was made so more USU students could attend the event.
Last year, before the change, 5,449 people attended the event. This year, 4,018 people attended, said Lynne Singleton, staff assistant in the Student Involvement Office.
The Homecoming dance was changed as well, making the event casual dress and free to students with their ID cards and $5 without. Those attending were not required to bring a date.
With the change, attendance numbers almost doubled compared with last year from 1,670 to 3,323, Singleton said.
“We made a lot of changes this year for a variety of reasons, but I feel that in the long run it will truly benefit the students,” Evans said. “Some of the changes are things that needed to be done years ago. I know most changes had some resistance, but they all worked out for the best when everything was done.”
The restructure was intended to make the body more efficient by allowing senators to deal more directly with the needs of their college. Baldwin said in the previous structure, sometimes college needs were passed over or not given the attention they deserved because they were lumped in with university-wide business.
“[The senate is] every student’s representation on campus,” said Spencer Watts, ASUSU Academic Senate President. “Anybody in any college having an issue, academic or otherwise, should go direclty to their senator.”
Watts said one major responsibility of the senate is providing students involved with academic research appropriate funding. Baldwin said providing this funding has been easier now that requests don’t have to come before such a large body.
With college business taken care of in the senate, the restructure has also become more streamlined and everything from legislation to activity attendance has been affected.
“Just about anything that could change has, I feel, for the better,” said Laurel Evans, programming vice president. “Hopefully we were able to set a strong foundation for next year to build on and continue to make ASUSU the best student government in the state,”
Watts said the senate has passed 11 pieces of legislation, the majority of them dealing with better defining the roles of those within the senate. The senate passed a piece of legislation in support of a fall break. All pieces of legislation not specifically dealing with the senate must also be voted on by the executive council, as was the fall break proposal.
The executive council has also passed legislation dealing with support of the Aggie Marching Band, and funding a student organization in need of funding to travel to Canada.
The 2004-05 ASUSU student government passed 30 pieces of legislation and failed three pieces of legislation. Eleven of those proposed bills dealt with requests for supplemental funding from campus groups.
The 2003-04 ASUSU student government passed nine pieces of legislation during the school year.
Baldwin said just figuring the new structure out has provided plenty of work for this year’s council.
“It’s a work in progress,” she said.
“There have been some issues with communication,” Watts said, but added most of those have been resolved now.
“This will be the model that we’ll follow for the next few years,” he said. “It will continue to work more efficiently.”
In addition to separating senators from executive council members, the restructure also provided the addition of an ASUSU Continuing Education appointed chair, currently Kiersten Hewitt. This position allows the Hewitt to work at the Brigham City and visit other sites. Currently the university is also working to clearly define continuing education which is under university Extension.
In years past, the students elected an ASUSU Extensions vice president, who remained on campus and visited the different sites once or twice a year.
The new position has already made Extension students feel like they are a part of the university even though some are far away from the Logan Campus, Hewitt said.
“Our mission is to extend education to students in the outreach community,” she said. “To neglect that is to cut off our life blood.”
Applications to run for next year’s council are available in TSC Room 326. Applicant numbers were relatively low last year, Baldwin said, probably due to the uncertainty surrounding the restructure.
“We were fortunate to have some very, very motived people run,” she said. “We have a solid council this year.”
Watts said encourages any USU student to at least think about running.
“It’s a great way to get involved,” he said.
“I would encourage anyone interested in running to start attending meetings,” she said. “This is not a popularity contest. They should take it very seriously.”
-mmackay@cc.usu.edu
-bnelson@cc.usu.edu