A special order that will be introduced at Associated Student Government’s Senate meeting Wednesday night will seek to increase student input in ASG and hold members more accountable for the decisions they make.
The Students First Initiative will be in full swing Fall Quarter, but parts of the project will be implemented by the end of this quarter, said Speaker of the Senate Bassel Korkor.
A “mass student input collection” will involve an improved “ASG Interactive” Web site, a new “Oracle of the Lake” Web site and tri-yearly “table talks,” where ASG members are available to answer student questions outside of The Rock and Technological Institute.
The Oracle of the Lake Web site, first proposed by former ASG President Dave Sheldon, will serve as the main vehicle for collecting input from students about their concerns.
“The concept is basically to collect comments, hopefully answer questions from the student body and archive them,” said Sean Melody, former technology director for ASG.
The academic and student services vice presidents will be the primary ASG officers who answer questions, Melody said. But if there is a question that a vice president cannot answer, it can either be submitted to an administrator or turned into a piece of legislation, which would then go to the appropriate administrator.
This would prevent the problem of administrators not doing anything about problems because they haven’t heard about them, which has happened in the past, Melody said.
“(It will) take advantage of the ASG-administrator relationship and include students in it,” Korkor said.
Students also use the Web site to submit complaints or suggestions, which Korkor would then collect and forward to the appropriate executive officer, he said.
Senator accountability also will be emphasized through an improved ASG InteractiveWeb site, Melody said.
The new Web site will have archives of past Senate meetings, featuring records of the senators including their voting and attendance records and bills they have authored or co-authored.
“(It will also have) what specific people are responsible for specific issues,” Korkor said. For example, if a student had a question about painting the basketball courts near the Foster-Walker Complex, he or she could look under the student services committee and figure out what person was in charge of that issue.
Also as part of the project, three times a year senators will participate in table talk sessions outside The Rock and Tech. During the three-day sessions, ASG members would sit outside to answer student questions and collect input.
Korkor said the Students First Initiative contains elements that will help achieve ASG’s motto: “Students First.”
“I don’t think 99 percent of the campus knows (the motto),” said Korkor, a Weinberg sophomore. “That says something, because ASG is not completely in touch with the students. (This will) proactively seek the input and ideas of students so that what ASG does is directly related to what the students want.”
