To determine changes in how student taxpayer money is used and the effectiveness of its internal structure, ASMSU allocated almost $7,000 on Thursday to gather student opinion.
Student reactions will be gathered through a survey of undergraduates for its Constitutional Convention Committee, which will review ASMSU's constitution and might propose changes such as combining the two assemblies into a unicameral body. ASMSU currently has an Academic Assembly and Student Assembly that focus on different student issues, such as city relations and course curriculum.
But, some representatives argued that MSU's undergraduate student government should already know student opinion if they effectively represent them.
"We ought to know what our constituents want because that ought to be around our table," said Derek Wallbank, a representative for the Council for Students with Disabilities, referring to the elected representatives from MSU's 14 colleges and student groups. However, Wallbank acknowledged that a revision in the bill for the constitutional convention directed the assembly to poll students.
Representatives narrowly passed the bill by a 1.1 percent margin, barely garnering the necessary votes.
Most representatives agreed to institute a survey, but some argued that nearly $7,000 might be excessive.
"I'm concerned that we're not being very financially responsible with this," said Hallee Winnie, a representative for the College of Social Science.
Kevin Ogden, a representative for the College of Natural Science, originally created the bill to survey 500 students for $4,800, but the assembly voted to change the number of students surveyed to 1,000 for an extra $2,000.
"This is a relatively cheap way to do it professionally," he said about the change to survey 500 more students.
Ogden said the Constitutional Convention Committee is at a standstill until it can get another at-large student. The committee calls for three students to sit and review ASMSU's constitution along with its chairpersons and association director.
The committee examines ASMSU's internal structure to determine if changes or revisions are needed to its constitution. Proposed changes will be placed on the 2005 campus elections ballot for undergraduate students to vote on, if both assemblies approve them.
Student Assembly also voted to take the survey money from its risk management account, which raised concerns from Wallbank.
The account exists within ASMSU from unused student taxpayer money. He strongly urged Student Assembly to deplete the account as soon as possible because student taxes are being stored away instead of used.
"A risk management account with $600,000 is a bit excessive for what we need," he said.
