The Associated Students of Colorado State University closed out a busy fall semester Dec. 3 with over 20 pieces of legislation passed, record-breaking event attendance and initiatives aimed at increasing student advocacy, civic engagement and improving student resources.
At the beginning of their term, student body President Jakye Nunley and Vice President Joseph Godshall said they aimed to increase student engagement and access to ASCSU on campus, emphasizing that the organization is for students, by students.
“I think that ASCSU really raised the bar for the stage of work that we do as an organization,” Nunley said. “One of our big things being we authored a lot of legislation this year that directly impacted campus life.”
Throughout the semester, the ASCSU senate, which includes representatives from each college and undeclared students, passed legislation addressing key issues impacting students, including freedom of speech and expression on campus, basic needs and transparency from university administration.
“The primary thing that I’ve seen in our work is that we’re just engaging the campus more, which is ultimately what we’re here to do.” -Joseph Godshall, student body vice president
Among the most notable initiatives are Resolution #5519 — titled Regarding Free Speech and Peaceful Assembly at CSU: Transparency — and Lex #5525 — titled A Call for ASCSU’s Support in Trans Day of Remembrance Ceremony Continuity. Both pieces of legislation garnered extensive support from the student body and sparked extended discussion and debate among senators.
In addition to its legislative work, ASCSU hosted several events to increase student engagement on campus and in this year’s state and local elections. Events ranged from collaborations with Cultural Resource Centers to roundtables with mayoral candidates.
“Our (ASCSU) Supreme Court did a collaborative event with the Asian Pacific American Cultural Center this semester called Pumpkin Palooza — that was awesome,” Nunley said. “We had our inaugural Quentin Fellowship this semester, which hosted 21 high school students here at CSU, and they got to shadow student government leaders. So campus partners all around were working.”
Regarding campus life and involvement, Godshall argued ASCSU has reached its goal of increasing student support and attendance for events this year.
“Our traditions team did have the largest student attendance for tailgates ever in school history, which is pretty awesome,” Godshall said. “A lot of our teams are seeing an increase in event attendance. I think that’s due to partnerships with external organizations and then as well as a lot of internal work, so that’s been pretty cool to see that more students are getting involved.”
When they initially launched their campaign, Nunley and Godshall platformed on the idea of a campus leader series to increase ASCSU’s connection with the CSU community, which is expected to begin in the spring.
“Next semester is going to be campus leader series heavy,” Nunley said. “We’re going to just work on getting all of the student organizations together, but then also getting the committee of people together to make sure that’s planned right and that it’s done well.”
In addition to the campus leader series, Nunley and Godshall are aiming to increase student advocacy at the state level through the Colorado General Assembly, as it has historically done.
“What I’m excited for the most is the beginning of the (Colorado) legislative session,” Godshall said. “ASCSU has a tremendous impact at the state level. We are fortunate enough to have great relationships with state representatives and legislators, and people who have political office and power, and so I’m really excited for us to have the chance to work with them during session like we’ve done in the past to advocate for the needs of students at the statewide level.”
As this semester comes to a close, ASCSU is preparing for next year’s student body elections. The Elections Committee has made considerable changes to the election process this year, including passing legislation that moves the start of the campaign period a week ahead. These changes are being made in an effort to increase student participation following last year’s disappointing 3.8% voter turnout.
“The primary thing that I’ve seen in our work is that we’re just engaging the campus more, which is ultimately what we’re here to do,” Godshall said.
Reach Laila Shekarchian at news@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.
