ASG Update
Cloie Sandlin
News Editor

The Associated Student Government has played a large part in making sure that the voices of students at Mesa State have been heard for many years. This year has been a monumental year so far for ASG and its accomplishments. It is the first year in several years that the ASG has filled every seat in the senate.
“We want to be the most representative of the students as we can,” said Dillon McMillen, vice president of ASG, “The more representatives that we have in the senate, the more representative we are of the student body.”
McMillen along with ASG president Nick Lopez cannot recall the last year that all the positions were filled.
In order for students to meet and get to know their representatives, the ASG senators are hosting a meet-and-greet from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the Gallegos Boardroom on the third floor of the ACB.
McMillen said he would like to see as many students attend as possible, but even if students are unable to make it, McMillen said that they plan on having meet-and-greets on a regular basis.
“This means that there are more voices of the students that are voting on student fee assessment and student fee spending,” McMillen said. “It means we have a broader range of students. We have students from different areas with different perspectives. It really allows us to be as aware as we possibly can when we’re making these decisions.”
McMillen said that the reason they had trouble filling the senate positions in the past was because no one was interested. One of their main goals this year, he said is to increase student awareness about ASG and the issues they deal with that will have an impact on students. By having every seat filled this year, he said that they were already making progress.
“Essentially when it comes right down to it, everyone in student government has the same charge, to try and fix student problems,” said McMillen. “The student center and the tobacco legislation came to be because students came up to the senate and had an issue. That is really to the core what the senate is about.”
Currently, there is a list of all positions available for the senate. ASG tried to encompass as many students as possible with these positions, allowing flexibility because certain majors drop off and come on over the years. McMillen said that ASG is looking at a new formulaic way to come up with positions similar to the state and federal governments, even though the format they have now has worked great in the past.
“I don’t think a lot of students realize how much input we have with administration,” McMillen said. “Very few schools across the nation have this much input and this is directly through the efforts of ASG.”
Katie Schultz, the ASG director of communications was hired on this semester to assist with increasing awareness and student participation in ASG issues.
“One of our main goals this year is definitely to try and get more student input,” Schultz said. “We want to know what students want us to be doing as their governing body. We welcome any feedback from any of the students at any of these meetings.”
ASG provides many meetings and events for students and staff to attend. Their town hall meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month in the Gallegos Boardroom. The next one is set for Oct. 6 at 5 p.m. followed by the ASG general assembly meeting.
“We would also always encourage students to come to our 6 p.m. general assembly meetings every Wednesday,” said McMillen. “We’ve got a public input section and the meetings are open to the public in the Gallegos Boardroom.”
The general assembly meetings is where ASG takes action through bills and referendums, votes on them, puts it in the records and makes a bill.
Another tool to help ASG reach students is through their Facebook profile under the name Mesa State ASG.
“We’re going to start using that more to invite people to events and to communicate with students that way,” Schultz said.
Schultz also encouraged students to attend the Ballot Tour put on by the Colorado Civic Engagement on Tuesday, Sept. 28. The tour will take place in room 160 in the Maverick Center from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
“There will be a round table discussion about the issues on the upcoming November ballot and how it will affect those in Colorado. Students are invited as it will affect us who attend school here,” Schultz said.
For more information on the Ballot Tour, contact Katie Groke Ellis at 303.880.1374.
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ccsandli@mesastate.edu