After a politically historic week for the U.S. with the election of Barack Obama, ASUA has planned what they believe will be a political milestone of their own.

The Associated Students of the University of Arizona will host the first official Senate Forum at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Presidio Room of the Student Union Memorial Center.

This is an opportunity for students to voice their opinions regarding issues that are most important to them, said Jessica Anderson, ASUA executive vice president. All of the senators and the executive board will be in attendance to listen to the students.

“”This is something that is very important for the ASUA. We are really trying to do our job and seek out the voice of the students,”” Anderson said. “”This has such great potential to help the senators readjust their focus for the rest of the year and base it on what the students really want. This style of student input is really new for ASUA, and we are hoping that it will spark student interest.””

ASUA Senator Gabby Ziccarelli has been a major force in the ASUA effort to show students the importance of their opinions.

“”When I was elected, it really bothered me when I would hear people say that the ASUA senators don’t do anything productive. Trying to open different lines of communication is the least we can do,”” Ziccarelli said. “”All of the senators are really excited about hearing what the students are really concerned about. We know it is a little late in the semester, but we are hoping to make it count for the remainder of the year.

“”ASUA has tried to do town-hall-style meetings before,”” Zicarelli added, “”but those were more like senate reports rather than question and answer.””

Due to the turbulence regarding a controversial cartoon that ran last week in the Daily Wildcat, Anderson is anticipating a lot of diversity talk, along with a discussion about President Shelton’s recent tuition increase proposal.

Although the senators encourage all students to come and participate in the forum, they are expecting a somewhat limited group, meaning that not all of the students will be equally represented.

“”We are expecting lots of freshman and sophomores who live on campus,”” Ziccarelli said.

The ASUA is working toward their goal of being a relevant and more effective voice for the students, she added.

“”Basically, our goal this year is to be ‘your student government.’ We were elected to represent the entire student body, and we really want to promote communication between ASUA and the students,”” Ziccarelli said. “”We want to work on programs students care about. We all ran on our own individual platforms, but ultimately we are hoping to be better informed of the students’ needs.””