The Associated Student Government (ASG) is a student fee-funded organization that focuses on budgets and advocacy for individual students as well as groups. The new President, Vice President, Senators and House Representatives were elected by the student body in the Spring of 2022 to serve for the 2022-2023 school year.
ASG President Cy Shimamura has been a part of the organization for three years, serving as a Senator and as a Representative. Shimamura is a senior in business management and has served as the Director of the Cultural Inclusion Council as well as the Coordinator for the Ho’olokahi Polynesian Alliance.
“Those positions really helped me build connections with the students here on campus and that’s why I wanted to run with Jason Hunter,” Shimamura said.
Senior Jason Hunter will be serving as Vice President. Jason is a Marketing major and participates in Greek Life on campus. Shimamura and Hunter ran on the promise of transparency in their campaigns and want students to be able to go to ASG without feeling intimidated.
The last elected executive is the Trustee position, which is held by Evan Piper. Along with the elected executives, there are appointed positions. These include the Chief of Staff, Press Secretary, Chief Financial Officer and Director of External.
Senior Business Management major David Proctor holds the Chief of Staff position for the year. He started in the Physical and Environmental Sciences Senate seat and has worked on multiple committees in the organization. Proctor also played a big role in rewriting the House rules, this includes that members have to be voted in instead of appointed.
“I’m really excited for this position because you’re going to see [me] working on trying to broaden the position. I will be more involved in and out [of ASG] and I am going to work with the executive team on making sure everything’s fluid between us and the legislature,” Proctor said.
Taja Koch will be serving as the Press Secretary, and will be in charge of media relations including socials, comments and scheduling interviews with the executives. Koch is a junior majoring in Mass Media, which is why she was appointed to the position.
Koch’s goals are to improve the brand of ASG on social media and to increase its presence so that more students can get involved. She encouraged students to put themselves out there for new positions because every person, no matter their background, can succeed in organizations such as ASG.
The purpose of the organization is to help students, mainly with financials. With the biennial approaching, ASG is doubling down on meeting with each organization to help put their budgets in place. Shimamura stated that the goal for this was to keep the same- or even lower- student fees for the next two years.
Along with this huge project, ASG helps clubs with constitution building, provides backing for student projects and will award money to groups who need it. The ultimate goal for the organization is to make clubs self-sufficient so that each one will be able to take trips and hold events.
Shimamura, Hunter and Proctor all agreed that they want their team to be seen as the YMCA of campus rather than the country club. Shimamura elaborated that ASG wants to be laid back and approachable and not to be seen as exclusive or condescending.
“I can speak for both Jason and I. We’re really excited to meet all the new freshmen and commuters that come to [Colorado Mesa University] and really just connect with the students. The clubs that we met with and the teams that we met with during our campaign, we want to follow up with them and make sure that every student feels welcome here on campus,” Shimamura said.
For inquiries, students can send emails to ASG@coloradomesa.edu or visit their office on the second floor of the University Center in Student Life.
