The idea for the campus-wide town hall was crafted in hopes of boosting student involvement in the upcoming ASMSU elections, which has been extremely low in the past. The election drew only 9.2 percent of the student body last year.
In preparation for the event, ASMSU took to social media and posted flyers around campus to send the message.
College of Social Sciences Representative Evan Schrage played a large role in creating the campus wide town halls, and said he was disappointed in the outcome, but wouldn’t necessarily count student turnout as a reason for students to discredit ASMSU.
“It’s very unfortunate that students aren’t taking to the town halls as well as we would like them to,” Schrage said. “We need to do a better job in outreach efforts and probably need to be doing things a lot earlier so students can put events on their schedules and not have to worry.”
James Madison Representative Dolores Sinistaj’s presentation was met with empty seats at the James Madison town hall that took place in Wells Hall on Wednesday night.
Sinistaj said she hopes to reschedule the town hall inside Case Hall, where James Madison students will have easier access to it.
“It’s definitely a little disappointing coming from James Madison,” she said. “We are kind of the public policy residential college ... It’s kind of disheartening.”
The only other student in attendance at the James Madison town hall was a James Madison student who hopes to become an ASMSU representative in the future.
International relations freshman Wayne Askew said he hopes to combat low student participation by “letting people know sooner and more often.”
Although multiple colleges held town halls around campus, much of the response, or lack thereof, was one and the same.
Lyman Briggs College also held a town hall on Wednesday night.
“ASMSU is the most readily assembly of people that are willing to listen to your issues and actually take action based on those issues,” ASMSU Vice President for University Programming Jamayl Martin said.
Martin and others were willing to listen, but almost no students were present to voice their opinions.
ASMSU officials are hoping things turn around for their upcoming elections, which will begin March 31.
Students have one week to vote for a candidate to represent their college.
Students will be notified via email and can vote using an online system.
