OUR VIEW: ASUSU doing what they promised

ASUSU has a tough job.

With limited authority and only a year in office, these students are expected to make students happy by providing them with parties, activities and speakers and also fighting the student body’s battles with administration.

Issues affecting students range from tuition and the price of textbooks, to booting, to availability of internships and study abroad programs. ASUSU members take on these problems and many more in an effort to find ways to make things better for students. Yet they depend on availability of funds and the willingness of administrators to cooperate with them, and can only hope some other officer in a couple years won’t undo what they spent a semester or two working on.

Though some of the things ASUSU does are not very visible, much of what goes on behind the scenes is important to students. They spend hours planning for events most students take for granted because they happen every year. They work with faculty, staff and administrators to push projects through, which only a portion of campus may ever appreciate.

This year, ASUSU has put on dozens of activities, shows and dances and has worked on other projects like filming a service movie, researching a proposal on same-day voter registration, trying to remove a state spending cap on higher education, re-working the university’s cheating policy to be more fair to students, and raising money to help victims of the California fires.

Though ASUSU has little power to do anything on their own – in legislative terms, the most they can do is pass resolutions – they have a lot of influence and some pretty good ideas. This year’s group of student leaders has been proactive and ambitious in working toward the goals they set for themselves. They have shown they are taking their positions seriously.

Though the Statesman doesn’t report on every project and minute development in ASUSU, we want the student body to know their representatives are working for them.

We applaud the ASUSU officers for the work they have done so far this year. We hope the concrete goals and volume of progress that has marked this semester for ASUSU will continue into spring. Keep up the good work.