Move over, C-SPAN. ASMSU could be heading to the airwaves.
Vikas Menon, association director for MSU's undergraduate student government, said he has been looking into broadcasting assembly meetings on campus cable. He tentatively is scheduled to make a report of his findings at the Jan. 27 Academic Assembly meeting.
"We're trying to work with University Housing and with a few people in the College of Communication (Arts and Sciences)," he said.
University Housing's Channel 12, or "U Tube," would be a likely option for airing the meetings. Several other campus programs regularly air on the channel, including news programs "FocalPoint," "MSU UpFront," and the comedy show "Sideshow."
But cable is not the only option Menon is looking into.
"If nothing else works, this is something where we can have our own representatives tape our meetings and maybe show them on the Web site," he said.
The ASMSU Web site itself has been a source of headaches this year, with representatives receiving reprimands for slow updates. The site hasn't been updated since before break, and parts of it still aren't finished.
Progress will go faster once a new director of digital media and graphic marketing and a director of constituent activism are hired, Menon said.
International relations junior Neel Agrawal and telecommunication, information studies and media senior Nitin Pereira formerly held the positions. They resigned in December and January, respectively.
"Sometime in the fall, one of the reps brought up television, so at that point the director of constituent activism started work on it," Menon said, adding that he has been picking up some of their projects so far this semester.
If the meetings are broadcast, Bruce Serven, Academic Assembly representative for the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, said the student government would find another outlet to connect with students.
"At one point, there was a broadcast commission resolution presented," Serven said. Three constituencies supported it.
Ana Holguin, an English literature graduate student, said she might stop on the meetings if she were channel surfing, even though the government is for undergraduate students.
"I don't know if it would be a regular thing," she said.
