Representatives of the Associated Student Government answered questions about Homecoming and student involvement during their town hall meeting on Thursday. The meeting was attended by eight individuals, among whom two were not affiliated with ASG. One of the two non-ASG attendees was a member of The Criterion.
During the introduction portion of the town hall on Oct. 11, the ASG executive branch members present, Student Trustee Amara Hobbs, Vice President Jeff Vela and President Beau Flores all expressed a desire for greater student attendance at future meetings.
“I am really, really excited for this event. I want it to be huge; I want all kinds of students to voice their opinion,” Flores said. “This is something we need. I hope this will create that foundation [for better attendance next semester.]”
After introductions were made, the panel opened the floor to questions. Most of the questions came from The Criterion and focused on finance and student involvement.
The attendance of only one attendee who wasn’t affiliated with ASG or media was called to attention during inquiry of how ASG plans on enhancing student involvement. The panel pointed to themselves as needing to reach out to students more and discussed increasing the cooperation between student-run organizations and clubs.
Hobbs stated that while larger attendance would have been preferable, it’s not an outright statement of students lacking involvement. Hobbs pointed out the many ways for students to be active at Colorado Mesa University and suggested that students don’t have time to support everything.
Student involvement and finance were both addressed in the matter of Homecoming events. The historically low participation at events was brought up in comparison to the costs of the events.
According to Vela, the carnival has a budget of about five thousand dollars with two thousand coming from ASG. In addition to the carnival, ASG has allocated two thousand dollars for parade prize money.
The parade money was approved at the same ASG meeting where recreation center passes for Montrose students was debated over and the number of passes purchased was decreased from last year. Spending two thousand dollars on the parade passed unanimously without discussion.
When asked if money spent on Homecoming events with low support would be better spent on supplying rec center passes to Montrose students interested in pursuing health and wellness, the panel responded the two issues were funded from different sources, so re-allocating money was not a simple matter.
Flores expressed that consistency of planning could have a positive impact on Homecoming. “I think the issue that needs to be addressed is who is going to be in charge of Homecoming, who is going to supply it financially and then how are we going to to do it?” Flores said.
Flores said that he spoke for himself with his thoughts that Homecoming should be put on through cooperation between all student orgs.
Another Homecoming question stemmed from the theme always being assigned by alumni rather than current students; a matter that led to last year’s theme seemingly embracing CMU’s opponent. The theme was Wild West and the opponent’s mascot was a Cowboy.
The panel collectively expressed support for more student involvement in deciding the theme without excluding alumni. Hobbs suggested creating a poll and sending it to both students and alumni.
Flores concluded the town hall meeting by expressing a desire to change how ASG is viewed. He said the general thought was that ASG was the place to go to get money and that is only an aspect of what they do. Flores said it was important to encourage students to come to them to address problems they perceive.
“If anyone has issues and they want to see a change, come to ASG,” Flores said.
