The executive board members of ASUA is halfway through their terms and are going into the spring semester in full swing.
“”I think one of the biggest successes that we had last semester was apparent in some of the smaller things we did,”” said Associated Students of the University of Arizona President Emily Fritze.
Fritze said one of ASUA’s goals would be to finalize a universal class clicker policy for the university, a subject ASUA began addressing last semester.
“”We worked on academic policy with the administration and helped support getting the universal clicker, so students would have only one clicker for all of their classes instead of having to buy different ones,”” Fritze said. She hopes this goal will become a reality sometime this year.
Another effort, she said, is ASUA’s ongoing emphasis on becoming more transparent.
“”Our treasurer has consistently provided budget reports of where our money is going,”” she said.
Though the reports are handed out at senate meetings and are not currently available online, she said that is something they are hoping to begin next semester.
ASUA’s budget this year is balanced at $1,372,150, $38,570.08 less than last year. The year’s total for club funding stands at $54,707.01 as of its last meeting in December. In the coming semester, ASUA seems excited to utilize the rest of that budget and look toward aiding the budgets of students, according to Fritze.
“”The biggest things for next semester will be the fee and tuition process that happens,”” she said.
Throughout the year, ASUA meets with UA President Robert Shelton and the administration to converse about tuition. Usually after each of the three Arizona universities present fee proposals to the Arizona Board of Regents, a hearing is held where students, faculty and administration can react and ask questions.
“”There’s a meeting in April about tuition and fee charges for students, and this semester there will be different fee proposals,”” Fritze said. “”We will be heavily involved, and already have been, and are trying to give the students’ voice.””
Lindsay Hartgraves, an ASUA senator and sophomore studying English and pre-education, said she’s looking forward to the variety of senate projects on the horizon.
“”I think that lots of us have some really great new ideas that haven’t been brought to the U of A before,”” Hartgraves said.
ASUA also collaborated with the Arizona Students’ Association last semester to bring polling stations to campus through the UA Votes campaign. They registered and educated students about the 2010 elections and also hosted the 8th Congressional District debate that drew 1,600 attendees.
Fritze described UA Votes as a “”semester-long goal,”” and adds that it was one of the most costly to put on.
“”It required more events to gather students to register, and also there’s a cost for the debate,”” Fritze said. “”Only a portion of the costs came from the budget. A lot came from the ASA budget and also other budgets of people we worked with … none of the other smaller events really cost a lot of money. I don’t think we had any major event that we could say cost a lot of money.””
Instead, Fritze said the majority of ASUA’s events focused on initiatives, policy changes, and a “”culture change that hopefully could carry over to campus.””
“”We’re looking to host some larger events next semester, but we’re also conscious of being financially responsibly for our budget and what we put on,”” Fritze said.
