Andrew Crighton
Staff Writer
Student government isn’t new; they’re in almost every high school and university, but what they can actually accomplish does vary widely. Much like conventional government, there is a conception that student organizations don’t accomplish much of anything, whether it’s for the students that they represent or doing anything in general. There are many factors that can lead to this: anything from administrative control, a lack of involvement or the individuals who hold positions in the government.
The ASISU Senate is comprised of senators who represent students based on the colleges throughout the university. ASISU is not immune to the inefficiencies that a governing organization can face, but which ones are most prevalent?
According to current and previous senators and students, it’s communication, or more so the lack there of.
“I think the student body doesn’t see student government as a very beneficial or useful body,” said Kyle Son, a previous ASISU senator and ASISU President for a period of time in the 2014-2015 academic year. “I think a lot of people see them or perceive them as students who made it through an election and collect a paycheck to do the bare minimum.”
The current perception of students on campus may not be as explicitly negative, but more of a general lack of knowledge, explained Tristan Worley, an ASISU senator from the College of Technology.
“I don’t think that they [students] understand what ASISU does, because you see the name watermarked on all the club events and everything, but you think, ‘hey that’s just another icon of ISU.’”
Fifteen random ISU students were asked about their knowledge and opinions on the ASISU Senate. The most common response was a general knowledge that the Senate existed, but not much more than that. Several students knew that they had a senator. There were no complaints about the senate, but there were no compliments either. This lack of knowledge hasn’t gone unnoticed by the current senate.
“We’re trying to get the students to know that you do have a voice and we want to hear from you,” said Worley.
Worley got involved with ASISU because of the lack of information, it was what his platform was when he ran for election, that he would help spread the word of ASISU.
“I didn’t even realize that we had a student government. After finding out that we did I thought it was horrendous that someone could go to this school for two years and not really know that we had a student government,” Worley added.
Without communication there can be a noticeable impact on efficiency. Son explains that ASISU as an institution has the ability to represent the student body to the administration extremely well, but whether or not that happens is dependent on the individuals who are holding office and their communication with each other and the administration.
“I think there’s just piss poor communication everywhere, across the board, and that keeps a lot of things from getting done,” said Son. “My experience with the administration was a good one. But that’s because we really made an effort to reach out and communicate with them… When there’s communication change can be made.”
When there is no communication between the government and the student body, apathy starts to develop. If people don’t know what their senate is doing, then they don’t care. This apathy may be manifesting itself in the ISU student body.
When asked if their senator was holding a meeting to talk with the constituency and there was no conflict in schedule, all of the previously mentioned students said that they would not attend the meeting.
Just as much as the senate needs to communicate with the student body, students need to communicate with their senators. The purpose of the ASISU Senate is to handle student concerns, student club concerns and provide general information to students from a student organization.
If there is no input from the student body, it can be hard to represent. According to Worley,
“We need your voice or we can’t do anything. Without your voice we don’t know where to go. We’re spent looking for things we can do to maybe help the student body.”
The ASISU senate meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Salmon River Suite of the PSUB.
