Nov. 20’s resignation of ASMSU’s Academic Assembly representative for the College of Communication Arts and Sciences left more questions than answers.
Monica Leslie’s departure from the assembly leaves one less hardworking member to represent MSU students. Leslie was busy working on a number of issues including an effort to put a voting student seat on the MSU Board of Trustees.
Losing a representative as hard-working as Leslie makes us wonder if she received the support she needed from the executive staff of the undergraduate student government. Any situation when an energetic person feels as though they must leave his or her position is a travesty.
Leslie said she resigned largely because of time commitments with ASMSU conflicting with other responsibilities. But she also told The State News that internal conflicts and a lack of communication with administrators were also factors.
We recognize it had to be frustrating for Leslie that the wheels of change at ASMSU and the university work so slowly when she put so much effort into her initiatives. For example, it’s a shame ASMSU couldn’t organize direct communication with the trustees about Leslie’s effort to add a voting student seat - the incident also stands out as an example of the apparent lack of attention trustees pay to student issues.
But walking away from this kind of situation solves little and it certainly will not fix the larger problem. If there is something wrong with the processes at ASMSU, Leslie should have addressed this while remaining an active member of the organization.
What makes this resignation even more of a setback is that ASMSU has let another potentially groundbreaking member slip through its fingertips. Student government officials should have helped Leslie deal with her time conflicts and given her the support she needed.
We’re encouraged Leslie will continue some of her public work with the University Student Commission and its work with the East Lansing City Council.
But it’s a shame one of the hardest working representatives we’ve seen at ASMSU felt the need to walk away from the student government.
