ASUSU VIEW: Each student is capable of causing change
I have the opportunity to sit on various committees where I am the lone student representative. I also am privileged in working jointly with each college senator to address the concerns of each college separately. This job is important and I need to make sure that I appropriately address the concerns of the students. I feel for the most part that I do the job to the best of my knowledge and strive to express all the students’ concerns.
The biggest obstacle with this is that I don’t know every student, nor do I have an idea of all their concerns or ideas for this university. One thing I feel the student body needs to know is that they can be heard and that no matter who they are or where they are from they can make a difference at Utah State. Many do not know that ASUSU is an acronym for Associated Students of Utah State University. We are here to address your concerns and to work for you. If it weren’t for the whole student body, the members of the student government would not be where they are.
I want USU students to understand that their voices are more than capable of being heard. What they need to do is speak out and let the appropriate people know what they want to see change. There are so many avenues that students can take to voice their concerns. Some of our great resources are: Senators for each college, the student advocate, advisers, myself and many other students that know what they want and how to make a difference. A great example of this is the new late hours that the library remains open for for dead week and finals week. The library last year would usually close at midnight during the last two weeks, and would prevent students that are cramming for those last finals, forcing them to resume studying in an unfocused apartment or dorm. A student last year came to Ben Croshaw, the former Academic Senate President, and mentioned we should extend those hours to a later time so students might have more time to study. Ben took that concern and made it happen. As we all know, the library on those last weeks now stays open until 1 a.m. This is just a minor example of what can happen when one student decides to make a change.
Now I don’t mean for this to sound over the top, but think of the many ideas that you have had while attending USU. I’m sure that there are many instances such as walking around campus that you think to yourself “I sure wish they did this different,” or “Why don’t we have more things like this?” or even “Why have this as a requirement to graduate?” Questions need to be asked, concerns need to be voiced and differences need to be made. Without them we don’t grow as a University or as a student body. Now don’t get me wrong, things are going great at this university. I love it, but there are many things that go overlooked and improvements that need to be made. So next time you complain to your roommate about something you would like to see change, do something about it. If you don’t, nothing will change.
Tanner Wright is the ASUSU Academic Senate president.