Representatives from ASMSU will be heading to a conference at the school down the road at the end of January for the first time in two years.
On Jan. 13, MSU's undergraduate student government's Academic Assembly voted to send three representatives to the biyearly Association of Big Ten Students conference at the University of Michigan.
ASMSU stopped attending the conference when the format of the organization changed, Academic Assembly Chairperson Jared English said.
"There was a shift from a group that was passing legislation to a conference setting," he said. The group originally introduced bills and voted on them; other conferences generally have speakers and workshops.
"We learned a lot out of it and came back with a lot of great ideas, but the management was not good," said James Madison College Representative Adam Raezler, who participated in the last conference MSU attended.
Several other Big Ten universities left the conference when MSU did, English said. This year, however, the conference is under new management, and MSU attendees will re-evaluate the conference's format.
A spokesperson for the Association of Big Ten Students could not be reached for comment.
ASMSU also is a member of regional legislative group, the Association of Michigan Universities. Bruce Serven, representative for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is researching whether the government should consider paying abut $1,000 a year to be a charter member for the Florida-based American Student Government Association.
It costs nothing to be a member of the Association of Big Ten Students or Association of Michigan Universities, said Comptroller Mike Trudeau.
Also at the Jan. 13 meeting, discussion of ways to increase awareness of ASMSU and improve interaction with the student body was part of several members' reports. Members of the assembly have recently expressed expressing concern that the government is not connecting with the 35,197 undergraduate students.
Some reported future plans to communicate with students by broadcasting general meetings, holding a welcome-week concert in the Breslin Center and hiring a new Director of Constituent Activism.
For more information, visit http://asmsu.msu.edu.
