ASUSU happy with restructure
The recent division of ASUSU’s governing body has proven successful in allowing senate and council members to focus more on their individual responsibilities for Utah State University students, said Holly Scott, ASUSU public relations director.
“We wanted things to run more efficiently and to cater to students at large in each area,” Scott said. “We wanted to be more effective.”
This is the first year ASUSU has been separated into two different bodies. Prior to these changes, ASUSU had one body representing all students. It is now divided into the Academic Senate and the Executive Council.
Academic Senate deals with academic issues and their respective college. There is a representative for each academic college.
“The senate takes care of the academic affairs of the university and is a good representation of the
entire university,” Spencer Watts, Academic Senate vice president, said. “They come from all walks of life.”
These changes are giving senators more of an opportunity to concentrate on the college they represent and to be more effective, he said.
“They can now really focus on legislation that will improve academic quality at USU,” Watts said.
The Executive Council handles clubs, programming, organizations and other areas of the university.
“The Executive Council deals with all aspects of student life at USU,” Watts said. “It really has more of a broad job description than the Academic Senate.”
The council is also involved in academic issues facing the university. Watts said the senate can pass legislation which will then go to the Executive Council for a vote.
Even though ASUSU is divided into two governing bodies, they still work together. Justin Atkinson, student advocate vice president, said there are people who attend both senate and executive meetings in order to communicate with each other about what the other body is doing.
“There are two separate areas, but communication still exists,” Atkinson said. “There is less confusion.”
Atkinson said students are welcome to voice concerns to the bodies of ASUSU. He said the Executive Council is the voice of students and the communication link between them and the administration.
“We get input from students dealing with concerns. Students can bring issues to us, we talk about them and do further research,” Atkinson said.
Both bodies are completely open to students and are invited to all meetings.
“There will be bugs to work out here and there,” Atkinson said. “This is a trial run and we will make minor adjustments as they come.”
Atkinson said the problems originated with the format of ASUSU. The size of the government limited ASUSU’s ability to work efficiently and effectively, he said.
He said last year’s members of ASUSU were frustrated with the size of the body.
“This was in the works for some time last year,” Atkinson said.
The changes have been so successful, Scott said, they will be implemented in future years.
“We plan to keep going forward with these changes because they
are working so well,” Scott said.
-ariek@cc.usu.edu