In an effort to increase their outreach to the campus community, members of ASUA will be out on the UA Mall Tuesday to talk to student constituents.
Meet your ASUA day runs Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and will serve as an opportunity for students to see the services that the Associated Students of the University of Arizona offers. Students will have a chance to voice their concerns or offer suggestions.
Eleven booths will be set up on the Mall for students to visit, and ASUA elected officials will be mingling among the students. Booths will consist of Safe Ride, Students for Sustainability and the ASUA Senate.
The event comes from an initiative implemented by Sen. Bryan Namba, whose platform suggested a “meet your ASUA day” that would allow students to discover involvement opportunities and to give feedback. President Katy Murray also referred to outreach and transparency as plans for her presidency.
ASUA Executive Vice President Krystina Nguyen explained that ASUA officials would be actively approaching students at the event and handing out flyers. Senators will also have their business cards to get the word out on how to contact them.
Last year, ASUA ran a “complain day” on the Mall where students could write their concerns and suggestions on a piece of poster board.
This year, ASUA Sen. Vinson Liu is combining this idea with his own of hosting office hours for the ASUA Senate. At least three senators will be out on the Mall at one time and their office hours will be listed on the ASUA website.
Liu plans to host ASUA Senate office hours on the Mall in November, too.
“This is something I hope I can establish long term,” Liu said. “Three hours on the Mall isn’t going to do anything for [the] UofA long-term. This is something that future senators could continue as well as us continuing next semester.”
This year, the Senate hasn’t received any emails regarding any concerns from students. Namba explained that this might be because students find ASUA officials intimidating or students may not know what the student government does.
“Last year I was on Freshman Class Council, so I was really lucky to know what student government did,” Namba said. “But if I wasn’t in FCC, I always think, I would not know what ASUA did. I would almost be afraid to outreach to student government leaders.”
Nguyen added that the hours were chosen specifically to hit the most students because the event is right around lunch time and that’s when the most students are likely to walk by the Mall.
“Even if we get 100 people,” Namba said, “that’s still 100 outside voices that we have either telling us what we want to see or getting us moving in the right direction.”
