MSU’s two largest student governments - who have not always been on the best of terms - have taken steps to improve their working relationship this year.
“Quite a few years ago, RHA and ASMSU did have some major communication problems,” ASMSU Student Assembly Chairperson Matt Weingarden said. “RHA and ASMSU really were not working very well together.”
Delegates from ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, and the Residence Halls Association, have begun working together on programs initiated to improve student life on and off campus.
The first partnership between the organizations was designed to encourage students to vote on Election Day with the Get Out the Vote Campaign. ASMSU and RHA members will be stationed at various points on campus with fliers containing information on the voting process.
Weingarden said when ASMSU was established in 1965, there were two residence halls groups on campus - the Men’s Halls Association and Women’s Inter-residence Council.
Some members from those groups broke off to form ASMSU, and in 1971, RHA was formed.
MSU Board of Trustees secretary Sue Carter was the last president of the Women’s Inter-residence Council before it merged with the men’s group to become RHA. Initially, the two governments worked well together, Carter said.
“There was a very tight connection,” she said. “There was a time when there was a lot of collaboration and cooperation.”
While RHA has had a voting seat on ASMSU’s Student Assembly since 1965, RHA only recently acquired one on the Academic Assembly in 2001.
Derek Wallbank, RHA external vice president, said each committee will consists of seven people. ASMSU may have one person per committee, acting as an experienced adviser on how to run the committee more effectively.
“Since ASMSU has similar committees, they will provide us with context on how to work effectively immediately,” Wallbank said.
Kristen Daddow, a College of Agriculture and Natural Resources representative in ASMSU’s Academic Assembly, said she has made improving the RHA and ASMSU relationship a personal goal.
“The relationship now is strained,” she said.
“It just seemed like a lot of the projects we were working on could go a lot better if we worked together a little more.”
