Undergraduate Student Government Downtown is starting off the semester light on major goals and senators but has plans to address both soon.
The student government, which has not had a full Senate in its history, only has four elected members to start the semester, similar to last year’s Senate.
President Frank Smith III said USGD interviewed potential senators over the weekend and aimed to appoint several of them at the first Senate meeting. The goal, as it has been since the Downtown student government was created, is to get a full Senate and complete representation of all schools on campus.
“We have some amazing applicants, so we should get a full staff,” Smith said.
Unlike former, two-term USGD President Joseph Grossman, Smith does not yet have overarching plans for the Downtown campus or university-wide goals.
Smith is not planning to take on tuition as Grossman did, instead deciding to focus on the smaller fees that can incrementally add to a student’s cost of attendance.
For example, Smith said he is planning for USGD to cover equipment-rental fees for students at the new Downtown campus Sun Devil Fitness Complex.
He also wants to continue previous administrations’ attempts to outreach more effectively with Downtown students. Smith said he thinks the students on campus still don’t know they have student government as a resource, and he wants to change that.
“We want the students to feel like they have a voice,” Senate President Stephany Caceres said.
Caceres said USGD members have not yet discussed their main goals for the semester, but she agreed with Smith’s objectives of appointing a full Senate and connecting with Downtown students.
Caceres and Smith are the only USGD staff members with past experience in student government. Smith was a University College senator last year, and Caceres represented the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.
The 2012-13 school year also started out with few senators, but each of the three senators that started the year had sat on the Senate previously. Grossman and former Vice President of Services David Bakardjiev were also returning to their roles, as were the director of finance Sam Tongue and local-affairs director Michael Homan.
“It was definitely a learning experience once I got into the position,” Homan said of his first year on the job. He had been to the First Fridays artwalks and some local concerts but didn’t know much about the community and its relationship with ASU.
Journalism freshman Cassidy Trowbridge is the local-affairs director for USGD this year. Trowbridge is responsible for outreach in the downtown community.
“This job meant a lot to me … that I was able to get involved immediately,” Trowbridge said. “My goal, first and foremost, is to get familiar with the community.”
She said she didn’t have much knowledge about downtown, with her main contact being from her participation in the Walter Cronkite School’s summer high-school journalism program.
“Experience is always going to be valuable,” Homan said. “But, at the end of the day, everyone has to start somewhere.”
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
