ASG unveils new student concern system at first meeting of the school year

Miami University’s Associated Student Government (ASG) is back for the school year, and it boasts a new student concern system with it.

As part of an updated website, ASG has included a Google form that allows Miami students to “voice their concerns.” Before this feature, students had to email or reach out to ASG senators to get their worries about campus to the ASG floor.

The new system will allow students to bring up concerns during ASG meetings which occur every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Joslin Senate Chamber in Armstrong Student Center.

At the meeting, the concern will be read out and allocated to the correct committee to try to solve the problem.

“Parliamentarian [Eli] Davies will have a sheet pulled up with all the student's concerns and then we'll have a discussion about where we think it should go,” Senate Speaker Tia Bakshi said.

Following the committee's decision, a response will be sent to the student. Committees have two senate meetings, or two weeks to respond to a student concern..

At this time, there is no way to submit the form without submitting your email as well. ASG will also require each student senator to submit three of their own student concerns over the course of the semester.

With this meeting being the first of the academic year, there were no current student concerns or legislation to be passed. Nevertheless, time was spent discussing what future legislation ASG can enact.

“The Senate can create legislation on anything from academic buildings to on-campus crime,” Davies said. “It’s really anything in our purview.”

Many of the resolutions that are presented in the Senate have steps that committees can follow to create change. The committees then send their resolutions to services on campus such as the Physical Facilities Department to solve the student concern.

If the legislation does not have actionable steps, ASG will release a formal statement.

Student concerns will be heard at the next ASG meeting at 6 p.m. on Sept. 26 in the Joslin Senate Chamber.