But Student Assembly Chairperson Michael Leahy said an explanation is in order.

“A lot of that money went toward an asbestos abatement,” he said.

“The carpet was torn up because things were rotting under it. We went through bids and took the cheapest one. It was a good time to get some new furniture, as well, because it hadn’t been replaced in a long time.”

Leahy said there are two other important points for the student body to understand about the new carpet, chairs, desk and storage cabinets that went into the governmental affairs office, Red Cedar Log and vice chairperson’s office.

ASMSU must purchase furniture items from companies that the university had previously designated, such as McMillan Bros., said Juan Carlos Elizalde, Student Assembly’s vice chairperson for internal affairs. The furniture was authorized by Student Life as well, Elizalde said.

Secondly, Leahy said if he, as an MSU student, heard his student government was spending more than $12,000 on office equipment with student tax dollars, he would be upset too.

“That would be outrageous,” he said. “But you’ve got to understand that we didn’t buy La-Z-Boys. We got the cheapest stuff we could choose from.”

ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.

The ASMSU officials from last spring purchased the furniture, and it was installed before the current officers took their positions.

Now, the ASMSU Student Assembly is working to allocate the money from the Special Projects budget to finally pay the expenses.

Student Assembly representative Jake Zheng said the update was necessary.

“The old furniture was somewhere like 30 years old and had duct tape all over the carpet,” he said. “These offices are a place of conducting business with donors, officials and many other individuals. With the original furniture, it was lackluster and embarrassing.”

Economics sophomore Bryan Pitcairn doesn’t understand why ASMSU should ever need to worry about purchasing thousands of dollars worth of furniture.

“For furniture, it should not be students’ money but instead the university should cover expenses like that,” he said.

Pitcairn said he was not that familiar with ASMSU, but he said $12,443.36 is too much to be spent in one building for one group.

“Whatever they do, they could budget their money a lot better,” he said.