By Mahalee Evans

Forum contributor

As the recent ASOSU elections come to a close with Rachel Grisham and Brett Morgan winning the President and Vice President positions for the 2016-2017 academic year, a lot of questions come to mind about the activity and influence of our student government.

How do everyday students feel about these events?

In terms of student government operations and awareness, here’s what some had to say:

When asked if she thinks that ASOSU makes any changes that benefit her, Tiara Scott a first-year business student replied “Yes, I think it does otherwise why would you have it around if it didn’t make a difference?”

Shelby Adams a third-year zoology student said, “I think that your opinion matters to a certain extent, I think that they can only do so much” when asked if she believe that her opinion matters to the student government.

After being asked if they kept up with issues dealt with by ASOSU, Scott laughed and said, “No, personally no, just because I don’t really know where to look for that stuff at” while Adams replied, “Yea just because it’s like school involvement and they try to get students involved and aware, so yes.”

Unfortunately when asked if either of them had heard of anything that ASOSU has been doing recently, they both answered with a quick “No”.

Adams, having been personally directed to contact ASOSU due to housing complications during winter term, states that “I don’t think that ASOSU has a big voice in what goes on, I think that they can just help direct you in the right area but they don’t have any power to make decisions”.

Adams wishes the university would “give them (ASOSU) more of a voice for students”, but also says “I don’t think that a lot of people really know about ASOSU, I know that they do a lot of activities and stuff. I also feel like the elections recently helped raise awareness, because in one of my classes they had someone come in and I feel like not that many people even knew about the elections”.

Lack of awareness is clearly a big issue when it comes to ASOSU’s agenda and their constituents.

One way to decrease the gap between students and their government can be found in an online from dubbed, “WTFOSU”, which stands for What To Fix OSU.

As with the current U.S. Presidential race, if you didn’t vote, you should not complain about who wins or what they are doing. ASOSU can only listen if the students of OSU have something to say.

The opinions expressed in Evans’s column do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Barometer staff.

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