Government officials at any level, including student governments, are ultimately responsible for acting on behalf of their constituents and reporting back to them.
Just as in the state and federal governments, transparency of agendas and activities within the Undergraduate Student Government at ASU’s Tempe campus is key to remaining accountable to the student body, student leaders say.
“Transparency is one of the things I ran on and something I’m really passionate about,” USG President Jacob Goulding said.
Transparency concerns
The current USG website, a key source of information for students, can be difficult to find unless students already know the full web address, Vice President of Services Tina Mounlavongsy admits.
Neither a search for USG nor Undergraduate Student Government on the ASU website yields a link to the page, and the link provided on the Student Affairs webpage leads to a site about last year’s administration.
“We are aware it’s wrong and have tried to contact all kinds of organizations and people to have that old link come down,” Mounlavgonsky said. “That’s something we’ve been trying to target, but it’s out of our power.”
Goulding said he acknowledges that this can frustrate students.
“If it’s not up to date, it looks horrible, but we’re not trying to hide any information,” he said. “It’s very frustrating for us as well.”
While the upcoming events section is regularly updated, contact information for some staff members is unavailable or out of date, most USG meeting times and dates aren’t updated and the most recent USG Senate meeting minutes are from April 2010.
Senate President James Seidman agreed transparency is important and that the minutes should be posted. But he did not have an explanation of why they were not.
“There’s nothing I can do other then say, ‘Hey, this needs to be put up,’” Seidman said.
Senator Gabriel Sanchez said he is unhappy with the way the website is maintained and that it shouldn’t be so difficult to keep it up to date.
“Its ridiculous that it’s not kept up to date. Sometimes in the Senate we vote on [state] bills and take stances on things the student body and constituents should be kept in the loop on,” Sanchez said. “Because of what’s there, nobody knows what we’re working on or what stances were taking on things like gun bills and tuition increases that affect students.”
Some progress
Sanchez said of the three administrations he has served under, the current administration has made the most progress in increasing transparency.
“This administration has really tried a lot more to increase communication between departments, which naturally increases transparency,” he said.
This communication is one of the biggest strengths of Goulding’s administration and something it has greatly improved this year, Sanchez said.
Seidman offered a solution for coming years.
“It would be great to make a position of webmaster for the Senate,” he said. “Maybe not be on committee as much, and rather just focus on maintaining the website.”
Seidman said the Senate structure may be changing in the near future, and a webmaster position could be part of that.
Conflicts of interest
Yet another issue with transparency comes into play with claims of appointed positions being given to friends.
Political science senior and 2010 USG presidential candidate Brendan Corrigan said administrations for years have been comprised of the same group of students, with officers appointing friends from within USG.
“It’s always been that the incoming president was on the administration of the previous one,” he said. “It’s led to an unfortunate pattern of the same kind of people being elected each year and a batch of recycled ideas and policies and services.”
In the case of the 2010 elections, Corrigan said the outgoing administration of President Brendan O’Kelly influenced the outcome of the election in Goulding’s favor.
O’Kelly said the incumbent president typically chooses a candidate to support, and he does not think his support of Goulding affected the outcome of last year’s election.
“My particular support was more open than it has been in the past … but in no way did I say to the staff or senate I want a formal resolution of support,” O’Kelly said. “I don’t think it was an overwhelming influence. I think people made their own decisions based on the information they had.”
Some of that information may have come in the form of an email composed by former USG Outreach Coordinator Matthew Brinkmoeller, which Corrigan said misrepresented his platform.
Brinkmoeller is currently serving on the supreme court following his appointment by Goulding and did not respond to questions regarding the email or his relationship with Goulding.
At the start of each academic year, the new USG president appoints three students to the supreme court, and the new Graduate and Professional Students Association president appoints two.
The combined court serves both USG and GPSA. All appointments must be confirmed by a two-thirds vote in the senate.
This year, Goulding appointed two graduate students, including Brinkmoeller, and one undergraduate student, creating a court of four graduate students and one undergraduate student.
Some senators questioned why Goulding would appoint a majority of graduate students to the undergraduate court.
Goulding said he had known Justice Christopher Hoopes, the second graduate student appointee, for about a year prior to his appointment to the court through their time working together in the senate.
“I see no disadvantage in us having a friendship before,” Goulding said.
Goulding said he felt Hoopes was the most qualified and passionate of the candidates.
Hoopes and Brinkmoeller are both first-year graduate students, ASU undergraduate alumni and had prior USG experience, Goulding said.
Although both Hoopes and Brinkmoeller were approved by the senate, former Sen. Joshua Judd voted against the nominees because he felt the process was not as transparent as it should have been.
“I was also concerned with how unpublicized the search for qualified candidates to be appointed was,” Judd said. “When I asked questions about that in the senate meeting, [Goulding] said, ‘These are appointments, it’s my prerogative.’”
Hoopes also declined to comment on his relationship with Goulding prior to his appointment to the court.
A work in progress
Goulding said his administration has continually worked to increase transparency and encouraged students to get involved in all areas.
“I’ve tried my best this year so far to expand communication between USG and students,” he said.
Goulding, Mounlavongsy and Vice President of Services Michael Wong set up a table outside the Memorial Union from noon to 1 p.m. every Tuesday to meet with students face-to-face.
“We obviously do care, because otherwise we wouldn’t be out there,” Mounlavongsy said.
The tabling provides an outlet for student feedback, Goulding said.
Goulding and his staff also give regular updates at the start of each senate meeting about current issues, hold office hours to meet with students, schedule open forums with ASU President Michael Crow so students can ask him questions directly and update the USG Facebook page regularly.
Looking to the future, Goulding said he is still working to establish a monthly email to all students with updates on USG activities, as well as creating a USG tab on the myASU page that would provide similar information but on a more regular basis.
“The information is out there,” Goulding said.
Seidman said USG is improving every year and encouraged students to vote or get involved if they want to see changes.
“Part of it is also getting more students to care,” he said. “There is a lot of power in USG, and it’s important that students get involved and care.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
