ASMSU Elections

ASMSU, or the Associated Students of Montana State University, is basically MSU's student government. It is election season for ASMSU — on Monday there was a primary Presidential candidate debate, and on Tuesday we had the primary election to choose which two candidates would progress to the final election.

In addition to an elected President and Vice President and an appointed Business Manager, ASMSU consists of a senate. The seats on the ASMSU senate are divided by where the students live. It consists of three on-campus senators, four off-campus senators, a Greek senator, a Family/Grad Housing senator, and three "At-Large" senators. So, similar to districts in a city, students who live on campus choose from candidates in the on-campus district. The At-Large senators are selected by the entire student body.

ASMSU is basically the representative of the students of MSU that the administration sees; if the administration wants to know how students feel about an issue, they ask ASMSU. In addition to communicating with MSU's administration, ASMSU decides how to spend the students' money. Every student taking seven or more credits pays a $151 fee towards ASMSU. Some of the money is earmarked for various student services, and $89 per student is left for ASMSU to decide how to spend.

So, the main reason to get involved in ASMSU, or at least be informed about it, is that they decide how to spend your money on programs for you.

If you want to watch Monday's Presidential debate, click this link.

For the record, the Exponent (our student newspaper) had a great article about ASMSU in their February 18 issue, which was of great assistance to me in writing this blog.

Get involved!