Representatives from ASMSU recently attended a conference at Texas A&M, where they were honored with multiple awards for its performance as a student government.

ASMSU received two awards, one for “Outstanding Student Government of the Year” and one for “Outstanding Achievement Award for Legislative Action.”

Regarding the award for “Outstanding Student Government of the Year,” a statement by ASMSU said, “The award was scored on the criteria of the development and implementation of innovative student services or programs for students on its campus; engagement with campus administration or other campus partners/programming areas to accomplish goals or fulfill missions.”

The statement also explained the work that went into the legislation ASMSU was awarded for.

“This included the involvement of passing legislation in ASMSU to support the legislation, gathering students at large to petition for the change, and further write op-eds to local news outlets about the importance of the issue at hand,” the statement reads.

ASMSU President Lorenzo Santavicca notified the ASMSU General Assembly of these awards during a meeting on March 2.

“I think it’s a testament to the work of the General Assembly with our staff and certainly with our executive board and class councils to really move forward on our collective student voice here at the university,” Santavicca said.

He said the recognition is especially rewarding because of the panel who decides who receives the awards.

“The committee itself was comprised of advisers, students as well as some faculty members from Texas A&M,” Santavicca said. “The students and advisers were from other student governments that participated in the conference.”

Considering the current state of the university and the pressure that is on ASMSU at this point in time, Santavicca said the awards are even more meaningful.

“It means more to the General Assembly now than ever,” Santavicca said. “I think it means that their work is validated. I think it shows that you don’t have long meetings that you do just for the heck of it. I think it shows that individuals treasure the conversation, the debate, the discussion that really means a lot to our student body.”

ASMSU Vice President for Governmental Affairs Alex Noffsinger also spoke on the importance of the awards and how essential they are given the current climate at MSU.

Noffsinger was involved in the work behind the awarded legislation.

“(The award) was actually really rewarding, not just personally, but for the entire Gov. Affairs office to get recognized, everyone in ASMSU,” Noffsinger said. “It’s kind of such a cliche that it was a group effort, but it really was.”

Noffsinger said it was rewarding to see something he worked hard on be implemented.

“To see something that we spent a lot of time on in the fall, a lot of resources and man hours, to see that come to fruition and to see the legislature act on it and all of our efforts ... to see it really get codified is, again, really rewarding,” Noffsinger said.