Elections are right around the corner and student government is working to wrap up the year.
Over the course of the last few weeks the Associated Student Government (ASG) at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) has been very busy. They have been making strides in advocating for student interests, navigating leadership changes and participating in legislative discussions.
ASG underwent a third change in leadership this year as former Chief of Staff Leilani Domingo formally tendered her resignation on March 4. The announcement was formally conveyed during a Senate session held on March 6. The Director of External Affairs Kiah Petree has assumed the duty of taking and dispersing minutes for the remainder of the year.
The organization has also seen, discussed and passed multiple resolutions and bills in the past month.
ASG has been working with a few entities to support bill HB24-1082, commonly known as the First-Generation-Serving Higher Education Institutions bill. They passed a resolution to support the bill and sent a letter to the Colorado legislators expressing their support. The bill passed through the Colorado State Senate on March 20. Once signed into law by the governor, the bill is poised to enhance support for first-generation students and improve higher education accessibility.
“This designation ideally will allow first generation students to see that places like CMU are places where they can succeed and be supported in their college career,” ASG Vice President Robert Hammes said.
Furthermore, ASG has been actively involved in collaborative efforts with student government leaders from across the state. President Aleena Gomez and Hammes signed onto a coalition letter urging the state legislature to adopt the proposed higher education budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This was driven by concerns that potential cuts to funding could lead to a substantial increase in tuition costs, affecting students statewide.
In their meeting on April 1, the ASG House of Representatives passed a bill focused on funding the restoration of the Union Depot–a train station– through the Grand Junction Union Depot. The House voted yes on pulling from reserves to allocate $5,000 towards this restoration project, a decision that was contested during the discussion. It faced some hesitancy from members due to concerns about it being a non-emergency reserve pull. Despite this, the resolution passed with eight yeas and one abstention.
“I strongly oppose this bill. The reserves are meant for emergencies and this is not. […] I think this should be a biannual thing to look at and set up a separate budget for that instead. We denied CAB [Club Advisory Board] for something similar. I oppose this because it is student fees and should go back to the students on campus, not to charity,” Chief Financial Officer Carissa Crawford stated in the meeting.
On April 3, the ASG Senate heard the bill and ultimately voted yes on drawing from reserves. Some Senate members were also apprehensive about the use of student fees. Nine senators voted yea, five voted nay and two abstained.
Apart from meetings, ASG has been preparing for their end of year events.
MavAwards is an annual event that ASG puts on per their bylaws to recognize students and faculty for their hard work. The general student body can nominate people for an award, then a committee narrows the candidates down to three people. From there, the student body votes.
“MavAwards this year is on April 27, and serves as an opportunity to recognize exceptional CMU students, faculty and alumni, as well as community leaders that have made a positive difference. $10,000 was budgeted for this event, and we came in under budget this year with a total cost of $9,683.46. This is about a 3% increase from last year’s cost of $9,368.43, primarily due to the cost of food increasing,” Hammes said.
Beginning in the next couple of weeks, ASG is preparing for its upcoming elections which are scheduled to be held from April 15 to 19.
The ASG presidential and vice-presidential candidates currently consist of pairs Molly Brimhall and Kyle Patten, Cambrie Holman and Maleah Brand, Lelani Domingo and Myles Newble and Andore Horruitiner and Anthony Sanchez. The current Student Trustee Kylie Graham is running unopposed for re-election. Candidate profiles can be found on Page 8.
