Associated Student Government President Mike Fong has organized a group of senators to investigate what Northwestern can do to foster a greater sense of community on campus — a move some students say is futile.

“We’ll see what other schools have done, what other schools have found successful, and then we’ll see if Northwestern students are interested,” said Fong, a Weinberg senior.

Fong said he decided to research community-building because he noticed students consistently are concerned about the absence of connectedness on campus. He also attempted last year to construct a bar at Norris University Center, but space issues and other concerns have put the project on hold indefinitely.

“For the last three or four years I’ve taken part of hundreds of student leader discussions, and every time students are always intent on improving community,” he said. “Now that I’m ASG president, I just hope to take some practical steps toward achieving this.”

With about 12 senators in the loosely formed committee, Fong said he hopes to get feedback from freshman senators who will observe successful community-building policies at other schools.

Fong said after information is compiled, he hopes to approach “relevant people” in the Office of Student Affairs in order to propose and discuss improvements to the sense of community.

“School means a lot to a lot of people, and if we can find ways to bring in the people who feel like they’re on the periphery, I think we’re adding a lot of value,” Fong said.

“I derived my satisfaction at Northwestern from feeling connectedness to my peers and feeling connected to everything I do here,” he added.

But some students opposed the idea, saying ASG should be focusing on other tasks.

“I think he could use his time better because it’s never going to change,” said Matt Breen, a Weinberg sophomore, adding that he thinks the NU community is divided because “there’s not one thing at Northwestern that brings all the students together.”

But students seemed to disagree about whether the university could use some more togetherness.

Some NU students said their peers already are sufficiently united, even without the help of a committee made for the purpose. Others said students across campus would benefit from more cohesion.

“(The proposed committee) sounds like a good idea, but I don’t really see a huge problem with community on campus,” said Nihal Patel, a Weinberg senior. “If it adds something, good. If not, I don’t think it’s a huge deal either.”

Some students suggested improving university athletic teams to increase community.

“If the football or basketball team is good — if we were big national figures — everyone would want to get in on it,” Patel said.

Weinberg junior Lauren Picheny said she thinks the university is “segregated” and “separated into subcommunities.” But, she said, the situation could improve if NU concerned itself with improving on-campus buildings for students.

“Norris sucks,” Picheny said. “We don’t have any food here and we have a bookstore that’s the size of my three-room apartment.”

Picheny added that she thought improving campus buildings probably would breed happier, more united students.