Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.

USGW to release new website aimed at informing constituents

The website is intended to consolidate information and allow students to better keep up with their USG

Alexander Sojourney

Alexander Sojourney, President of the USGW Student Body Affair and then-ASU junior, poses for a photo on the West campus in Glendale, Arizona, on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.


Undergraduate Student Government West is trying to improve communication with its constituents through a new website expected to launch soon. 

USGW President Alexander Sojourney, a junior double majoring in political science and justice studies, has been working on a website for USGW where information such as funding materials, Senate legislation and minutes and biographies of directors and senators can be found. 

The website would be independent from USGW's three existing websites — two different sites hosted on OrgSync and one hosted through Educational Outreach and Student Services.

“We want to make sure we’re more proactive in the sense that we can introduce the ASU student body to the very people they elected to represent them,” Sojourney said. “That doesn’t just start with the vice president, that starts with every member in the organization.” 

These new measures are intended to dispel any current confusion with accessing USGW documents, as well as to provide more information to West students about their student government. 

USGW's multiple websites make it difficult for students to find current, accurate information about the organization.

The first website is run by the Council of Presidents through EOSS as a part of new transparency measures established over winter break. The website includes explanations of how to get involved with student government, current services provided and a section detailing the goals for each branch. 

Sojourney said that the branches will begin producing more regular reports to keep the student body updated on the progress of various initiatives. 

“We will develop monthly reports instead of semester reports, so that’s just going to make sure students can have more monthly updates of what their student government is voting on,” Sojourney said. 

The COP website, which aggregates links to different ASU student government websites, is intended to make basic information about student government accessible. But beyond consolidating information and publishing the occasional report, the multiple websites make it difficult for individual branches to provide regularly updated information, according to USGW Senate President Natasha Snider, a senior double majoring in forensic science and biology. 

“Updating it was really hard because we’d have to send every update all the way up to EOSS, and it would take two weeks, and they would maybe post our change,” Snider said. “Every change took a month, so it wasn’t efficient for updating minutes.” 

In lieu of the EOSS website, USGW has been using its OrgSync platform to update meeting times, post about events and provide any other information its constituents may need. 

“That’s where all of our Senate information is and how we help (constituents) with budget requests,” Snider said. “While President Sojourney is finishing up and designing us a new website, we’ve been using Sun Devil Sync for this transition.”

The last website, also hosted by OrgSync, is no longer in use and directs students back to the COP website. 

Snider says that although it is no longer in use, the fact that the website has not been taken down yet can cause some issues. 

“There’s our old one that’s still up, we haven’t pulled it down,” she said. “It has some outdated information, so I think it causes a lot of confusion.”

The latest USGW website was supposed to be released over winter break, but there were setbacks that delayed the launch, Sojourney said. One such roadblock included an issue with the funding request for purchasing the domain name. 

“It’s no one’s fault specifically, it’s just a combination of things that happened that limited our ability to actually make the website go out the first week that school started in the spring semester,” Sojourney said. 

In addition to the new website, USGW is also looking to improve its social media presence. 


Chief of Staff Stephen Goodman, a freshman majoring in business administration, said that increasing social media presence will give constituents another way to remain updated and to reach out to the organization. 

“A big thing that we have been talking about has been redoing/revamping our social media, making it bigger and better and really using it as a platform to communicate with the people that have chosen for us to represent them,” Goodman said. “Be on the lookout for some exciting new content on social media." 


Reach the reporter at krquaran@asu.edu and follow @kiaraquaranta on Twitter. 

Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.


Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.

Subscribe to Pressing Matters



×

Notice

This website uses cookies to make your experience better and easier. By using this website you consent to our use of cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.