In an effort to fill Academic Governance system seats, ASMSU's Academic Assembly is opening the 34 student spots to all undergraduate students.
There are nine Academic Governance committees within Academic Council that have seats for student representatives.
Prior to this year, these seats were inclusive to Academic Assembly and typically yielded a low turnout from representatives.
"Part of the problem was that ASMSU representatives are busy," said Vinayak Prasad, external vice chairperson of the Academic Assembly, who is coordinating the change. "They don't get a chance to give these meetings their best attention."
By giving all undergraduate students the opportunity to fill committee seats, Prasad said students with a passionate interest in university policies will come through.
"The real advantage of allowing the general student (in the process) is that you get the voices of those that can speak directly to these changes," he said. "This is a great opportunity for students to work with faculty as peers."
The policy of allowing all students to sit on Academic Governance originated with a change in the bylaws proposed last school year by Dan Weber, current Academic Assembly chairperson.
The change eliminated the clause requiring Academic Assembly representatives to sit on committees.
"We can never fill seats," Weber said. "Before this we always had a low turnout, and faculty looked down on us."
Weber also addressed that in the past, representatives may not have been able to give Academic Governance committee meetings their full attention because of crowded schedules.
This change in Academic Governance committees will improve faculty and student relations and keep more student-friendly amendments to the governance bylaws, Weber said.
Julie Harrison, executive secretary for Academic Council, echoed the concerns of previous inconsistencies in Academic Governance committees.
"We haven't had consistent representation on the committees in the past few years," she said. "It was too many committees for too few people."
Opening spots to all students is an opportunity for students interested in government to make inroads to important decision-making venues, Harrison said.
"If they consistently come to meetings, the committees can get a lot of work done," she said.
