The Tempe Undergraduate Student Government Senate passed a bill Tuesday night recommending USG Tempe completely separate from the Arizona Students’ Association.
ASA is a nonprofit higher education advocacy organization funded by student fees and directed by a board of students from Arizona’s three public universities.
USG Tempe President Mark Naufel, along with two other USG presidents, stepped down from his position on the ASA board in late September.
Following Naufel’s resignation, the USG Tempe Senate created a task force to evaluate the necessity of ASA on the Tempe campus.
The task force compiled a 26-page report examining the necessity, ethics and possible reform of ASA and concluded that USG Tempe and other governing bodies should remove ASA from the Tempe campus.
Senate Bill 37, the resolution to present the task force to the Arizona Board of Regents, passed 21-2.
The report said ASA’s internal structure is so ineffective that pursuing organizational reform would be too difficult.
USG Tempe members met with ABOR Wednesday at a special meeting to address the situation.
ABOR student regent Tyler Bowyer, a rhetoric and composition graduate student, said this meeting was primarily to publicly acknowledge the issues surrounding ASA.
Bowyer said ABOR will begin meeting with students and investigating the issue. ABOR will probably hold another meeting specifically addressing ASA in mid-November, he said.
“We’ll take a look at the matter … and do what’s best for students across the state,” Bowyer said.
He said he could not yet comment on what actions ABOR may consider taking toward ASA.
Naufel said if ABOR chooses to disassociate ASU from ASA, ASU students would no longer pay the $2 per semester fee to ASA.
USG Tempe Senate President Josh Watson, an interdisciplinary studies senior, said USG would assume the role of ASA in advocating and lobbying for student interests.
USG is able to do everything ASA does on campus, Watson said.
Reach the reporter at tnhoman@asu.edu
