The purpose of the Associated Students of Colorado State University is to represent the voices of the student body to the administration of CSU and to the legislature of Colorado.

And they are doing just that. Saturday, our student body government met with their counterparts from seven other universities across the state to discuss how they are going to approach the problem of funding higher education in Colorado. Their plan is to “get the ball rolling” on the subject, beginning with a letter to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper regarding the $100 million that he promised to shift into higher education.

Along with the student governments, ASCSU is making a positive step towards establishing a student voice in the state government. Politics are all about networking and establishing relationships (sniping and partisan hatreds notwithstanding). Having some sort of presence with the Governor, and hopefully a few state representatives or senators in the future, will help give us a much better voice in the future.

A relationship with the statehouse is an important first step. It gives our voices some semblance of weight, and that will in turn mean that we have a greater influence with the people in charge of funding higher ed.

We’ll be keeping an eye on this in the future, but we applaud this first step by ASCSU.