As Colorado Mesa is grows to a larger and more accredited institution, housekeeping matters are quick to pop up. Next on the laundry list, Student Life needed to address how student organizations hire their leaders.

Where the process varied from org to org last semester, Student Life and ASG have now formed a five-person panel to interview and decide on whom to hire to be the head of any organization.

“Every org was kind of all over the place on how they hired, from appointing people to having an application process,” Student Life Director Mitch Kartens said. “ASG and the administration sat down and said, ‘We need to follow some sort of legal process, meaning we need to have applications and a record-kept process.”

The panel will consist of Karstens, the faculty advisor for the organization, two exiting organization members and, for now, the ASG president.

The panel will only be used for the head of each of the organizations. All other positions that an organization needs filled will be the responsibility of the organization leader and its advisor, though the decision has left some leaders a bit skeptical.

“The way that I see it is ASG wants to be more a part of each organization’s process. Its cool they are paying attention to more orgs than the ones just in their office, but it’s frustrating that they think they need to have a say in who gets hired when they haven’t been in tune enough over the past few years to know who fits the position the best,” Editor-In-Chief of Horizon Magazine, Cassie Heykoop, said. “I think it should be baby steps, and for them to come right in to have a say in the process I think is a little too aggressive.”

On the committees, Karstens and the faculty advisor are left without any power as only the two students representatives and the ASG president hold a vote in the committee.

“We always wanted the power in the organizations’ hands, thus the two versus one vote.” Karstens said. “I’m a part of the process for the management and implementing university policy, not so much running the org. I want to make sure payroll is right, bills are on time.”

Part of having the president on the panel was for the depth of knowledge on how student fees are allocated as well as representation of the students, although the current president will only be in office for a month.

Karstens admits this is a work in progress and certain aspects of the process may need changing.

A senator, such as the Media Board representative in regard to Horizon, may be more appropriate for next year’s hiring as they have more knowledge of the field relating to that org, according to Karstens.

“If [Karstens] wants to have a stronger relationship with the orgs, I think its a good idea,” Heykoop said. “It’s important for Mitch to be aware of what’s going on and to maintain a good relationship with the orgs so they can come to him when they really need. I think that Mitch should be a part of it, but I’m not sure anybody else needs to be.”

brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu