The Associated Students of Michigan State University, or ASMSU, is the undergraduate student government on campus, which offers various resources to students.
ASMSU provides iClicker rentals, free blue books and other services to MSU students. The organization also compiles new ideas and initiatives to implement throughout the school year.
Providing a student voice
Katherine Rifiotis, the president of ASMSU, was the first student speaker at the MSU Academic Welcome in over 15 years.
Rifiotis said she asked to speak because she wanted the voice of students to be recognized in the push for change on campus.
"I think it was a matter of both the recognition of a student voice after everything that happened, but also a greater partnership from our organization with administrators, and them knowing that we really wanted to be part of this change," Rifiotis said. "(And) a little bit of my side of things with trying to make a speech that would still respect the very academic-driven ceremony."
She's also the only undergraduate student on the presidential search committee.
The search committee will help create a pool of potential applicants. The Board of Trustees will then appoint MSU's next president.
"There will be a lot more delegation of different projects to all the vice presidents, so that might be somewhat more of a shift," Caroline Colpoys, executive assistant to the office of the president of ASMSU, said. "We're going to have to be more interdependent and, uh, each of the vice presidents will have to make sure that they're all pulling their own weight and hopefully I can help alleviate some of that stress."
Plans for 2018-19 school year
Rifiotis said ASMSU is planning on doing several "outward facing initiatives" this school year.
ASMSU is trying to register as many students to vote as possible. They have a partnership with a company called TurboVote, which makes it easier for students to register.
“We did a lot of voter registration doing AOP (Academic Orientation Program) and registered over 2,500 students of the incoming class," Rifiotis said.
ASMSU is also working toward increased outreach. Flyers will start to make appearances in dorms listing different events and opportunities on campus. Rifiotis said this includes diversity and inclusion booklets, which will highlight different narratives on campus.
“It's just a little booklet that has a Humans of New York (thing)," Rifiotis said.
Rifiotis said most students are unaware they have rights on campus.
ASMSU has a group of student rights activists who will help students when a professor or peer is not following university guidelines, Rifiotis said.
“We really want to make sure that students are aware of them before they get in trouble because sometimes it takes a little bit of meetings and talking and explaining,” Rifiotis said. “So we want to facilitate that process as much as possible. So, one of the things that we're doing this semester and planning for it already is 'know your rights nights.'"
Changing the way AOP works for freshmen and transfer students is also on the list of ASMSU's initiatives for the school year, Rifiotis said.
Rifiotis said she is pushing for a freshman seminar, which could help lead new students toward success and allow AOP to become better at connecting with new students.
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Another outward initiative ASMSU is pushing for is to expand awareness of mental health on campus. Rifiotis said this could be improved by other outreach campaigns or extending existing initiatives, such as Mental Health Awareness Week.
