As an organization, ASMSU provides students with resources such as iClicker and calculator rentals, legal services, readership programs, SafeRide and funding for Registered Student Organizations (RSO). Although students make use of these services, they remain unaware of where they come from. 

“I have utilized SafeRide, and I have probably promoted a number of the resources because I'm an RA on campus,” finance senior Jeremiah Rosenbrock said. “I've probably promoted stuff without realizing it, but [ASMSU’s] not something that I would say is like the first thing that comes to mind when you're thinking about what campus life is like.”

The Student Allocations Board (SAB), according to Vice President of Student Allocations Tanvi Rayapeddi, allocated $165,362.53 to activity departments since its inception at the beginning of the spring semester. In addition, $145,172 were allocated to RSOs during the spring semester.

After the spring elections that concluded on Friday, ASMSU announced that the voting body approved to increase the general tax by $4 — the first increase since 2006. 

Even though ASMSU offers a diverse range of resources, students aren’t engaging in the structural functions of the organization. During the 62nd session, out of 65 seats available in the General Assembly, only 36 seats were filled. In addition, ASMSU hasn't reached over 5% of the student body's engagement in their elections since 2022.

“I know they hold meetings of some sort, probably for student representation. I really don't know a lot, though,” said Lauren Kane, a senior in microbiology.

OOTP members expressed that one of ASMSU’s top priorities is to advocate for students. 

“I feel like we are always in a state of unrest where we still want more people even though we have had, like, I think a lot of success this year getting people involved,” Vice President of Internal Administration Maddie Hanes said. “We started looking into structures of ASMSU and how to change those to make them more applicable to more people. And also how to make ourselves more open to the general student population.” The OOTP ensured that the “work is never done“ in terms of getting student engagement. 

President Kathryn Harding discussed the ways in which ASMSU attempted to get voter engagement during this election cycle. In the past, the organization was only permitted to send one mass email to every student, letting them know about elections. This year, they look to table multiple times a day with incentives for students to vote, hoping to spread the message about elections and answer students’ questions on the ballot. 

Animal science freshman Finley Matias mentioned that they didn’t know about the elections occurring. “I saw that they were introducing new transgender people into the board or the council, and yeah, I like that, but that was all I really paid attention to I guess,” Matias said.

Matias was referring to the referendum to add a seat for TransAction on the General Assembly that was recently passed. The reason Matias was made aware of it was because of ASMSU’s tabling efforts at the Union.

However, not all students were reached through ASMSU's tabling. Public relations freshman Dana Edelstein said that she didn’t know of the organization’s existence, let alone that elections were going on.

“I feel like sometimes no press is good press, so not knowing who they are shows that they aren't doing anything necessarily wrong,” Edelstein said.

Harding referred to getting students engaged as the “impossible question“ because it’s something that ASMSU always tries to answer. How do they make sure every student knows who they are? 

Since $21 (now 25) are taken from each students' tuition bill, Harding thinks that every student should know who they are. In addition, she explained that their logo is “everywhere,“ on almost every piece of new student orientation material. 

“So there's probably a difference between people being like ‘oh I've seen the logo’ or heard the name, which I think everybody should at least have seen the logo or heard the name," Harding said. "But the question that we're always trying to answer is, like, how do we make students understand what we do? How do we help them with that line item in their tuition bill that actually goes towards helping them?” 

Despite the wary connection between ASMSU and the general student body, ASMSU has had one of its most fruitful sessions, breaking records for the most bills presented in one assembly meeting. They’ve also started their community engagement series with local legislators and started forums for students to get involved and discuss campus issues.

“We've seen a lot of great work from not only the people in this room, but everybody in ASMSU is seen being really intentional and thoughtful about wanting to engage with the rest of the student body,” Hanes said. 

However, the question looms: Why is ASMSU struggling to get engagement from the greater student body despite their efforts? 

“I don't know if there's a disconnect specifically [between ASMSU and the general student body]. I kind of think that it's just one of those things when you're on a campus this big with this many people and this many opportunities that it kind of just gets lost in the noise a bit. And so trying to center that, I feel like it's got to be a challenge for anyone,” Rosenbrock said.