It started last spring with the tax freeze and realignment with the university. Students were given a chance this semester to vote on renewing the ASMSU tax.
The tax referendum passed and ASMSU will continue to collect $18 per student per semester for their services.
History senior Jordan Zammit took it upon himself to create a campaign in an article on his “pseudo-news website,” The MSU Review, to vote against the tax renewal.
“I think if (the tax referendum) was publicized ahead of time ... in an unbiased manner, there’s no doubt in my mind that ASMSU would lose their tax,” Zammit said in a previous interview.
Zammit, who ran in the February special presidential elections to “make a statement,” alleged the organization was “bribing” students to vote “yes” by handing out merchandise.
Kiran Samra said the organization would never bribe students to vote one way.
“I would strongly disagree that we would not inform the students what they’re voting for,” Samra said. “We tell ... (student volunteers) who came to work (on-campus) polls, ‘This is what we’re voting for.’”
ASMSU had roughly 8 percent of the student body vote during their recent elections, which is less than the 9.2 percent of last year.
Because of low turnout, the organization continues to worry about constituent outreach.
Despite the failure of the campus-wide town halls the student government attempted to hold prior to the elections, Samra thinks there are other ideas that could help improve interaction with students.
She said the difficulty with getting exposure is because of the hundreds of organizations fighting for attention.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be waiting for them to come to us,” said newly elected President James Conwell. “Let’s go to places where they are ... the cafeterias (and) residences halls and communicate with them.”
Conwell said he would like to implement coffee hours on and off campus with students. Trying to engage students in conversation over coffee might get them more involved, he said.
As Conwell steps into his new position, he said he plans to make strides in favor of policies that will benefit students.
Conwell wants to tackle university policies and get students involved in voting in the upcoming elections this fall.
Samra said she supports Conwell in his efforts and looks forward to working with him and other members in the Office of the President.
“An event is something that comes and goes and a policy can affect students for years and years,” Samra said.
College of Social Science Representative Evan Schrage said he plans to continue his involvement with constituent outreach.
Schrage said the idea of a virtual town hall via social media would help students be engaged with a touch of their finger.
“We’ve seen what works and we’ve certainly seen what doesn’t work,” Schrage said. “Nothing happens over just one college year.”
Schrage also mentioned the idea of creating Twitter handles and Facebook pages for each of the college representatives so they would be more accessible to constituents.
