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RE-REWIND ASBSU
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The officials of the Associated Students of Boise State University have been in office for eight months. Recently, The Arbiter e-mailed the executive branch, the judicial branch and the appointed senators. We asked them what they have done to reach their objectives this semester. These are the responses. Some officials did not respond to our e-mails/phone calls.
Trevor Grigg
President, ASBSU
Extension of the Idaho Promise scholarship
During the summer we started quickly by hosting a meeting on campus with the student governments from all the major universities to talk about our goals with the state legislature. Plans were in place to push this in the 2009 legislative session, but due to the current economic situation and after speaking with President Kustra and Bruce Newcomb it has been decided to hold back on this idea. We are making tax-free textbooks our primary initiative for the 09 session. As well as assuring that tuition will not be increased more that the CPI.
More traditional university atmosphere
These are a list of all the events and programs that we have sponsored and worked with to build a traditional atmosphere: Parent family weekend, homecoming, orientations, funding of recruitment of traditional students to ASBSU, cowbell convention at the football game. The president and vice president along with the rest of the staff have personally spoken with hundreds of students individually during all orientations, focusing on recruiting and promoting students to get involved in activities on campus. We also helped plan, fund, and support parent family weekend, as well as taking a major role in homecoming.
Fraternity and sorority recruiting to campus
First, the view of the university and what we want to get done are two completely different things. They went in a direction we did not support. By continuing university funding of these groups and providing a new advisor which makes around $48,000 dollars, puts an unfair financial burden on taxpayers and students. The Greek system only has around 180 active people. We need to make it independent and self sustaining. Which means national fraternity and sororities need to come and organize. We have failed to make much if any progress in doing this. But that doesn’t mean we won’t get it done. The university does not see this issue the way we do.
Help push the Math Department for reform of 025–108 Math classes
Meeting with the Vice President of Student Affairs on this issue, the university took an active role with the Provost in researching and implementing new ideas into our math department. Again students need to understand we have no power or say over any educational departments. But we can talk with those that do and make sure they are doing something about the issue. And in this case they have been working on it, and I’m confident we will see progress in our 025 and 108 classes. This is an issue we ask about often, ensuring something gets done.
Other
Students need to understand the role that Student Government plays. The major thing that I feel Joe and I have accomplished is building trust and relationships with the people that matter most on campus. Our government has very little power to legislate anything of great importance, but we do have a tremendous amount of influence by being advocates and communicators for students in the right circles.
I feel people trust us and want to include us in every major decision that goes on at Boise State, that’s a big victory for our students. It very difficult to accomplish everything that needs to be done, but we are setting a foundation and learning how this bureaucracy works which will allow us to achieve even more.
We also aided Senator White in helping reform meal equivalency plans for students at the ILC. I set up a meeting and met with Kim Thomas who helped us get more options for students at that end of campus.
We are currently working on establishing town hall meetings in the dorms where students can ask Joe and I anything. This way we can know what needs changed, as well as educate students what we can and can’t do on certain issues.
Tyler Gaylord
Associate Justice, ASBSU
What is the mission of the ASBSU Judicial branch?
The Judicial branch has several purposes. First and foremost, we act as oversight to the legislative and executive branches. This occurs through a process of submission of requests for opinions and typically involves interpretation of the ASBSU Constitution, Codes, and/or Rules of Procedure. Second, we oversee the approval and recognition of clubs.
This is the bulk of what the Judiciary does, approving about one or two clubs a week. Third, the Judiciary chairs any impeachment, statement of fact, election code violation, or de-recognition hearing. These hearings are rare and are reserved for when a serious violation of the rules is committed.
How would you describe your job on a day-to-day basis?
Day-to-day? I’d describe my job in more of a week-to-week manner. As a body, the Judiciary meets once a week. Because we’re a purely reactive body, we generally don’t have to meet more often than that.
Most of what we do is accomplished in our meetings. However, we do keep office hours if any students ever want to meet with us.
How many justices are in the judicial branch? Do you think this number is appropriate to carry out your mission?
There are five justices on the branch. There is the Chief Justice, who chairs our meetings, the Senior Justice, who chairs in the absence of the Chief, and three Associate Justices. Yes, this number works.
There are enough people to get a variety of opinions on a matter while not having a discussion devolve into anarchy. Any more justices and there would be too much noise and things would be less likely to get done in an efficient manner.
What has the branch accomplished this semester? Can you cite examples?
We’ve approved many new clubs: Active Minds, Secular Student Alliance, Study Groups 101, Sustainability Club, Biblical Studies Center, The Entrepreneur Club, The National Society of Leadership and Success (Sigma Alpha Pi), Orthodox Christian Fellowship, Comic Book Club, Book Club, Autism Tolerance, and Ducks Unlimited.
We have also ruled on several requests for opinions, many dealing with interpretation of ASBSU Codes or the Constitution. The Judiciary also ruled on its first Statement of Fact hearing in several years. Overall, we’ve had a pretty full semester.
COMPILED ARBITER STAFF
