In an informal unscientific survey conducted by The State News of 100 people, 93 percent of undergraduate students did not seize their opportunity to vote in March's ASMSU elections, and the same percentage cannot name any of their college representatives.

"It's (the new assembly's) chance to make new decisions," said Nigel Scarlett, Student Assembly vice chairperson for external affairs. "They don't have to follow in the footsteps of the old assembly if they don't want to."

Mo' money

Jimmy Cox, a senator for Purdue University's undergraduate student government, whistled at the prospect of having $1.3 million to work with.

"That would make a huge difference," Cox said. "We could do a lot more exciting events at Purdue. Every time we do an activity, we make sure we spend our money efficiently and wisely."

Purdue's student government receives $55,000 per year for 39,228 students, while ASMSU budgeted for an average of 34,305 students during the 2007-08 school year.

According to ASMSU's 2007-08 proposed budget, the largest portion of the organization's funds — $342,008.65 — would go to legal services.

"You'd be surprised how busy our legal services are and how many students use them," said Scott Lachman, vice chairperson for student funding. "They're well-known for helping underage students with MIPs, but they help with tenant issues and research ASMSU issues if we need legal advice. I didn't know if legal services were the best use of student tax dollars but … you don't see the benefits of the legal services until you find yourself in an adverse situation."

The next largest allotment goes to MSU's student yearbook, the Red Cedar Log, which receives $262,213.40. At a Feb. 22 Student Assembly meeting, Kathy Lindahl, MSU's assistant vice president of finance and operations, said the university recycles 40 tons of the Red Cedar Log every year.

The two groups of ASMSU that are primarily responsible for funding campus groups and events directly, Programming and Funding boards, would be allocated $359,393.05 this year.

"I go to a program, and (students) don't know we sponsored money for that program to even happen," Scarlett said.

Lachman oversees Funding Board, which he says had a record-setting year, funding more campus organizations than ever before.

But he also said the organization, as a whole, could do more to utilize its budget.

"Our budget is one of the biggest in the Big Ten," he said. "We need to provide more services to students. Why not offer more?"

Mo' problems

At Student Assembly meetings this year, representatives ducking in and out and showing up late for the oft-tardy 6:30 p.m. starts has led to a problem in attaining quorum — one half plus one person of all voting assembly members currently seated — which the organization needs to take action.

"We have quorum problems — meetings don't start on time, and copies are made five minutes before," Lachman said. "There's a lot of things we could do better."

At the beginning of the year, a former representative called the organization a "good-old-boys' association" when the last female chairperson, Julielyn Gibbons, stepped down in January.

On Feb. 8, students packed the board room for Student Assembly's meeting, in which it passed a bill to remove Great Issues from its Programming Board. Great Issues sponsored Joe Carr's trip to campus last year that was later declared "anti-Semitic" by some assembly members. Almost two months later, Student Assembly declared the removal invalid because of a technicality in the original bill.

The minutes from the Feb. 8 meeting are still unaccounted for, lost from the personal computer of Vice Chairperson for Internal Affairs Brandon Hicks, but blame has not been placed.

"Certain years, you have a very cohesive office of the chair," Lachman said, adding that in the past, the organization's chairpersons met frequently to maintain open dialogue between assembly members.

"This year, we've had one meeting since July," he said. "You can see that at a lot of the meetings. The leadership of ASMSU needs to be on the same page."

Great Issues' reinstatement came amid threats of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the group against ASMSU.

"We contacted their attorney, and shortly after that, they reinstated Great Issues to Programming Board," the ACLU of Michigan's Legal Director Michael Steinberg said. "If the only reason they reinstated Great Issues was because of some procedural glitch, it makes me concerned that they might consider doing it again."

During a closed session at the March 29 meeting, in which Great Issues was determined to be reinstated, ASMSU argued it had adhered to the Michigan Open Meetings Act, but ASMSU attorney Brian Jeffries would not specify if it had to follow the law.

Student Assembly chairperson, Roger Ludy, maintains ASMSU is not a public body, defined in the act as "any state or local legislative or governing body, including a board, commission, committee, subcommittee, authority, or council that is empowered by state constitution, statute, charter, ordinance, resolution, (or) rule to exercise governmental or proprietary authority."

He said the group that oversees ASMSU's decisions is the same body that foots the bill for its actions.

"The student body holds us accountable," Ludy said. "One way is referendum, one is voting and thirdly is voting on the finances — the renewal of our tax every three years."

Ludy said the last way for the students to keep the organization in check is through the all-university student judiciary system, which is comprised of undergraduates hand-picked by ASMSU to fulfill that role.

"(Students) are the people that allow for judiciary to make a decision and bind ASMSU to that decision," Ludy said. "It's their job to interpret whether or not cases brought by students keeping the organization accountable were legal.

"And by legal, I mean according to our constitution — not the U.S. Constitution — and rules and bylaws."

According to the Student Handbook and Resource Guide, the MSU Board of Trustees implemented the student tax system for ASMSU in 1983.

The handbook states the student tax is refundable and if a tax-collecting group "is violating the regulations and procedures in this Administrative Ruling, the Vice President for Student Affairs and Services (currently Lee June) or his/her designee shall conduct a hearing on this matter. If it is the judgment of (June) that violation of procedures is evident, the affected group(s) may be suspended from collection privileges."

Following Great Issues' removal and lawsuit discussion, June addressed a letter to Student Assembly, recommending it "reconsider (its) decision."

After the March 29 meeting, June said he was "pleased" and commended the Assembly for "looking into the matter and resolving it."

Lachman, who has been with ASMSU for three years, is one of the most experienced members. He said some of the circumstances the assembly saw this year were unfortunate, but it has learned from them.

"We've definitely seen our fair share of problems," he said. "But every year, we've overcome these difficulties and strived for success to represent all students."

Mo' representatives

In the 43rd session of ASMSU, Student Assembly operated with 22 unfilled seats, while Academic Assembly had 10 vacancies.

In this year's elections, 24 students — nine more than last year — were placed on Student Assembly. Academic Assembly has two seats for every college at MSU, while Student Assembly's college seats are allotted based on college population. Other campus groups also have representatives on Student Assembly.

Nathaniel Giddings served as the Interfraternity Council representative this year and will return for the 44th session.

"No matter how much happened that was negative, we can take that and build upon it," he said. "We can learn from our mistakes and learn from what we did wrong to make ASMSU better and help our constituents."

But new representatives, such as Michael Webber and Emily Jackson, have limited knowledge about the organization and its activity.

Jackson, from the College of Natural Sciences, said the only information she had about ASMSU was "casual."

Webber, elected from the College of Social Science, was unfamiliar with the Great Issues situation this semester, and mistook it for the "Great Lakes issue."

"I don't have any specific goals at this point," Webber said. "But I'm sure I'll create quite a list once I start getting into it."

Scarlett said the changing of the assembly guard should not cause any disturbance in the progression of the organization.

"It's not hard at all," he said. "The people are elected. They're not idiots. I assume they all have common sense and can listen and be intelligent."

Lachman said ASMSU and students must work together for the government to be successful and effective in the end.

"I'd like to see the student government be the '911' on campus," he said. "If a student has an issue on campus and doesn't know who to turn to, turn to ASMSU."

Joey Nowak can be reached at nowakjo2@msu.edu.