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MSU student groups and governments seek change, look to grow

April 26, 2015
<p>Students arrive at the state Capitol during a protest against tuition hikes hosted by MSU Students United on April 11, 2014, in Lansing. Students marched through campus, beginning the march at Beaumont Tower. Danyelle Morrow/The State News</p>

Students arrive at the state Capitol during a protest against tuition hikes hosted by MSU Students United on April 11, 2014, in Lansing. Students marched through campus, beginning the march at Beaumont Tower. Danyelle Morrow/The State News

Photo by Danyelle Morrow | The State News

The official student government, ASMSU, is plagued with a low voter turnout — 3.3 percent — and even lower student interest. They are conciliatory on tuition and housing cost increases, but champion the services they provide for students such as free legal aid.

Their most tangible alternative, MSU Students United, exists in picket signs and protest chants. They openly oppose the administration and have no qualms operating with vocal and passionate measures, but have no formal organization or hierarchy.

The two groups come with very different mentalities and how they resonate with students. ASMSU works quieter, preferring to slowly affect change. MSU Students United is more visible, with primary tactics including protests and marches against what they view as injustices.

But in an attempt to bridge the gap between militant protests and an institutional structure, a new progressive student government is propping itself up alongside ASMSU.

But an alternate student government is in the works, made up of many of the same people as MSU Students United and is contrasting itself with ASMSU, the official student government. They are calling themselves the Student Union of Michigan State University and have about 75 members.

MSU alumnus Alex Bissell, affiliated with both MSU Students United and the Student Union said the groups is “setting out with the goal to create an alternate student governing institution and one that advocates for student rights.”

Currently, decisions are made by consensus rather than more traditional means like a majority or a super-majority vote, which is how ASMSU operates.

This development is something the administration hasn’t caught word of.

“I am not aware of a group called MSU Student Union,” MSU spokesperson Jason Cody wrote in an email. “Regardless, we would encourage any group of students who wish to voice their opinions or concerns to do so. The free exchange of ideas, even those that may be critical of the administration, are vital in a university setting.”

With ASMSU voter turnout rates at only 3.3 percent this year, it might appear students don’t care to participate in student government. This problem of apathy, however, is not localized to just ASMSU, and is a problem the Student Union is facing too.

The reasons behind this are more complicated and extend far beyond the scope of a student government, considering even in national elections the youth vote is the lowest demographic to turn out.

ASMSU Vice President for Governmental Affairs KC Perlberg said it would be a cop-out to say students don’t care about the issues, however prevalent that line of thinking may be among the student body.

“You think government doesn’t work for you, but there’s no conspiracy here,” he said. “Any business or institution will work on behalf of the people that hired it. Young people are choosing to remove themselves from the hiring process.”

Perlberg said at a base level, he thought students cared about ASMSU and would notice if it wasn’t there, but a busy college schedule prevented them from taking that much of an active role.

The Student Union and MSU Students United face similar problems. Bissell said MSU Students United itself never grew beyond a core group of activists.

Right now, the structure of the Student Union is leaderless and without a hierarchy, but he said as the organization grows and gathers support a hierarchy of some sort might be needed.

No other member of the ASMSU office of the president or the Student Union wished to comment.

“Exactly how independent would they like (ASMSU) to be, is my question back to them,” Perlberg said.

Bissell questioned the power of ASMSU, saying the administration doesn’t have to follow through with ASMSU’s recommendations.

“When they passed a resolution condemning George Will as commencement speaker, we see that the administration treats it as just like a suggestion that they can take into account and that the student government has no real power,” Bissell said.

Perlberg said it’s common for activist groups like MSU Students United to act from a more emotional base without taking into consideration the larger context of an issue and without doing any meaningful research, using the example of a full tuition freeze, something student activists have advocated for.

Bissell said accusations such as this have come with activists for decades, saying the status quo has become so rationalized that anything outside of it is looked at as irrational. He said those protesting the Vietnam War or fighting for women’s liberation in the 1960s and 1970s were looked at as irrational, too.

“In the ‘50s... the Civil Rights Act was something that might have appeared as impossible or irrational, but folks had to get together,” he said.

Although the groups have differing strategies, both aim to improve student life at MSU.

For example, one of the last bills passed by the ASMSU general assembly last semester was presented by Vice President for Special Projects Ryan Smith and College of Social Science Representative Evan Schrage and the bill changed how vacant general assembly seats were filled, making it harder to be appointed to open seats.

Smith said a driving force behind the move was looking at a future where ASMSU was something all students were intimately aware of.

The two groups currently have no official relationship with one another, although Perlberg said as undergraduate students, ASMSU would be happy to meet with them.

He also said changes come incrementally and the attitude that says change has to happen instantly isn’t tenable in reality.

Perlberg said ASMSU shouldn’t focus on outreach for the sake of outreach, but he did say ASMSU could market itself better.

“Staying relevant to students will come naturally if we provide real issues and services and if we provide them well,” he said. “The best way to stay relevant to students is to stay relevant to their lives.”

The Student Union sees itself as the latest iteration of a long history of campus activism and Bissell said those values would carry it forward, saying that protesting and picketing, without the support of thousands of students behind them, would be ultimately futile.

“There has been a history of campus activism since the Vietnam War, and it’s important to keep that going,” Bissell said.

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