At the outset of this year, we wanted to take the opportunity to provide you information related to your undergraduate and graduate student governance organizations, including just a few of the services and programs we provide to students.

The Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU) has served as the student government for Michigan State University’s roughly 37,000 undergraduate students for almost 50 years. In addition to representing students to the Board of Trustees and MSU’s administration, ASMSU also advocates on behalf of MSU students at the city, state and federal levels on a variety of student initiatives.

While ASMSU takes great pride in representing the undergraduate student voice at MSU, ASMSU also provides several programs and services, such as free i-Clicker rentals, free bluebooks, discounted test preparation courses, free yearbooks and free newspapers. Throughout the year, ASMSU allocates over $300,000 to various student groups and organizations across campus for various events and programming opportunities. With nearly 100 employees and an annual budget of roughly $1.65 million, ASMSU also serves as a valuable learning work experience for a variety of majors and is the second largest employer of MSU’s undergraduate students.

The Council of Graduate Students (COGS) is the official governance entity for the over 11,000 MSU graduate and professional students. COGS’ main purpose is to advocate for the needs of its diverse constituency while ensuring that graduate students voices are heard throughout the university. We provide conference grant funding and event funding for graduate students and student organizations.

COGS will also be hosting several social events throughout the course of the academic year to enable graduate and professional students to network and socialize with a broad cross-section of their peers across the campus. These include football tailgates, trivia nights, cooking classes and several other events.

Jointly, our organizations also provide legal services and interest-free short-term emergency loans to students. These services have proven to be of significant benefit to students who are in need of legal or financial assistance. On a final note, we encourage you to have your voice heard and engage with your student government groups. Our organizations are here to represent and be accountable to MSU students, and we ask that you join us in fulfilling these endeavors. Your participation and input is critical in helping to shape the future of our institution. Go Green!

Stefan Fletcher, COGS president
Evan Martinak, ASMSU Chairman President