“One of the things we really see on campus is that students don’t turn out to vote,” ASMSU president Domonique Clemons said. “I think actually having one of the candidates here, where they can interact with and engage with (students) right here on campus, is going help us bring election numbers up.”

East Lansing’s recent mayoral elections saw a resoundingly poor turnout of 33 student voters, a number that has caused concern.

“It’s going to be great for students to be able to see these candidates not on a stage for a debate, not for an interview on CNN, but to be able to see them in person and see that they're trying to connect with students as a very large voting (demographic) that doesn’t necessarily always vote,” vice president for governmental affairs Bryn Williams said.

Williams, who introduced the resolution, has been in contact with campaigns since late summer. He intends for the appearance to be hosted at Breslin Center, and ideally wants to attract a candidate from each party to campus.

“I do believe that in the coming week or so we may be able to have some idea of what the candidate options are going to be,” Williams said.

Another bill provides $100,000 to bring two musical acts to MSU, the identities of which have not yet been announced. This resolution is a joint measure with the University Activities Board. UAB will also provide $100,000 towards the concert and choose one of the performers.

“UAB has their artist already, I cannot tell you who it is or the genre… I will say they are pretty big on iTunes right now,” vice president for internal administration Jason Porter said. “I cannot say anything about our artist yet, but we are working with a talent agent. We’re still exploring a couple options, but we do have our shortlist.”

The concert is planned to be held in the Auditorium and Porter anticipates ticket prices will cost between $10 and $20.

“I think it’s always great for ASMSU to be able to partner with other groups to put large scale entertainment on to give the students,” Clemons said. “Not only are (these events) entertainment, but they’re really good when it comes to helping students as far as mental health. Sometimes you just need a break from classes and things like that and a chance to do something fun.”

Among other bills passed are measures to amend the ASMSU elections code, instate new representatives and eliminate the vice president for special projects position.

An additional $10,000 was allocated to to pay for Mental Health Awareness Week 2016 and an additional $5,000 was allocated to sponsor MSU Safe Place’s Race for the Place event.

Most bills passed unanimously, one of two exceptions being the concert bill. Eli Broad College of Business representative Michael Booth, one of three representatives to vote "no" on the resolution, believed the massive cash sum could’ve been put to better use.

“I’d probably give it to student scholarships, I think that academics play a minor role on this campus, but it’s all we’re here for,” Booth said. “People don’t really see the grandiosity in that, whereas they see a concert and say, ‘oh, that’s a great use of money’, but I see it as this is student money that goes to us — we should find a proper way to allocate it back to them.”

Booth also believes ASMSU’s student tax is too high, and that the organization’s budget is inflated in general.

“There’s too much money in ASMSU that people don’t know what to do with, so they’re trying to find ways to spend it and this is a perfect example of that,” Booth said.

Half of any unspent cash in ASMSU’s general fund will roll over into the next year, but half is also returned to registered student organizations, giving incentive to use as much as possible. While the measure is costly, Porter anticipates ticket sales will bring back between $27,000 and $33,000 in revenue.

“As someone said, ASMSU is not a business, we’re for the students, so obviously we’re not trying to get all our money back, but we are expecting some,” Porter said.