ASMSU members announced they would be more strictly enforcing representatives' attendance at office hours, even though students rarely visit representatives.

"People don't really know that they can talk to their representatives," said Elizabeth Lostracco, College of Arts and Letters representative for ASMSU's Academic Assembly. "Maybe they just don't know what ASMSU could do for them, or a lot of kids choose not to get involved."

The Academic and Student Assemblies of ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, have representatives for different colleges and major student organizations. Representatives have to designate two hours they will be available every week to work on projects and to meet with the students they represent, said Roger Ludy, vice chairperson for internal affairs for Student Assembly.

Since the beginning of the semester, both the Academic and Student Assemblies have drawn attention to representatives' office hours and have been planning different ways to communicate with students so they will be more involved in ASMSU.

"It's important to know what people are doing who represent you and to bring what issues you have with ASMSU to those representatives," Ludy said.

But not many students visit their representatives, members said.

"Every now and then someone comes in to talk to someone about something," said Karthik Prasad, vice chairperson for internal affairs for Academic Assembly. "It's not too frequent, but we're hoping to get students more involved in the community so students will come and talk to their representatives about issues that concern them."

Some representatives, such as Derek Wallbank, keep in touch with constituents by talking to students in their classes or by e-mailing college listservs, said Wallbank, College of Communication Arts and Sciences representative for Student Assembly.

"You have to have a time available for people to come talk to you, but you also have to go forth and go to where people are and talk to them," Wallbank said.

Holding office hours is like going to meetings as far as attendance rules go, Ludy said.

If representatives don't show up to their office hours, it counts as an absence, and if there are repeated absences, the assembly can vote to remove them.

ASMSU has had poor communication with students, but information on when and where students can contact representatives will be on ASMSU's Web site soon, Ludy said.

Members also plan to hand out fliers and possibly set up tables on campus to let students know more about ASMSU, Prasad said.