As the fall 2011 semester comes to a close, the Downtown student government is still without a third branch of government.
They have an active executive branch, with President Joseph Grossman, Local Affairs Director Michael Homan and others trying to bring students and the community together.
The Senate, with 12 of 16 seats filled, is more complete than it has been in years.
But, the Judicial Board — the crucial third check in the check-and-balance system — is absent.
According to the ASASUD Constitution – which the Downtown student government operated under until a student referendum passed a pan-campus “universal constitution” Thursday – the Judicial Board is required to meet three times each semester to review the constitution. (The new constitution also officially ratifies “Undergraduate Student Government Downtown” or USGD as the name of the Downtown student government, replacing “Associated Students of Arizona State University Downtown” or ASASUD.)
The board is also responsible for other duties, including enforcing the constitution, ruling on the constitutionality of government actions and reviewing impeachment cases.
The new universal constitution calls for a supreme court that Grossman said will act as an appellate court for the campus judicial boards, so the need for a Judicial Board on the Downtown campus still exists.
Yet despite receiving four to five applicants, Grossman said he didn’t have time to appoint any to the Senate.
Also absent from this year’s government is an Election Committee, the primary body responsible for coordinating spring’s elections.
In the past, even with an election committee, the Downtown student government has had elections complete with disqualifications, a re-qualification and myriad technical difficulties.
The reason this committee hasn’t been filled yet this year is interest in continuing as a senator by current government members, said Director of Administration Rudy Rivas.
Currently, two senators have told Rivas they want to participate in the committee, but that still leaves two seats open. Rivas would not name which senators expressed interest.
Applications to the committee for students will be put online Dec. 14.
Grossman and Rivas both said they do not believe the delayed formation of this year’s Election Committee will affect the voting process next semester.
A semester in review
During last semester’s presidential election, then-candidate Grossman focused his campaign on reducing tuition for students — or, at the very least, stopping further tuition increases.
Grossman said he spent a lot of time at the state capitol this semester working on this issue behind the scenes.
Next semester, when the legislature is in session, is when the state would try to cut more funding to education, but it currently appears unlikely the legislature will issue another round of cuts to higher education.
Something Grossman did not focus on during his campaign — but was an emphasis of then-presidential candidate Andres Cano’s campaign — was strengthening the government’s connection to the downtown Phoenix community.
So far, several events have successfully bolstered this connection.
The first step in better interacting with the downtown community was creating the local affairs director position and appointing Homan, a Nonprofit Leadership and Management freshman and Phoenix resident, to this position in September.
Homan and Cano, who currently serves as the director of parliamentary procedures, set up the first Buy Local, Be Local event in November, at which they brought to three local food trucks to Taylor Street.
“This year’s administration’s efforts to engage students in the community focus on encouraging students to explore their surroundings on our urban campus,” Director of Public Relations Danielle Chavez said.
Efforts also include sponsoring free ice cream for students from The Sweetness during the shop’s opening and co-hosting a discussion with the New York Times and the School of Letters and Sciences at Fair Trade Cafe on the impact and importance of “Arab Spring.”
The new Universal Committee is also trying to connect students to the surrounding community.
Universal Committee co-chair Stephanie Avalos said the committee is organizing a walking tour of the downtown community for students. The walk will include six local restaurants in an attempt to foster a relationship between the business and students. The walk is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 20.
“The way that we speak about a boundary between our campus and the community needs to be eliminated,” Homan said. “What makes a city great is having a single entity, one community, and our campus is included in it.”
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
Aubree Abril contributed to this report.
