It takes much more than a sentence to sum up what the ASUO does. Instead of actually taking the time to figure it out, I feel that most students take the way of listening to opinions and stereotypes revolving this highly active group on campus. Instead of taking to the norm, I decided to see what all the hype was about and applied for an internship.
After getting the gig, I realized the ASUO is a major operation that deals with much more than I ever imagined. From voting on budgets and the level of the incidental fee to Erb Memorial Union relations and events with programs — this organization has a ton of responsibility. In light of this, I feel like it is fair to say that criticizing the entire ASUO as being ineffective is almost as unfair as blaming the entire state of Arizona for the current immigration bill.
For my ASUO internship, I was assigned to work in public relations and communications. This was not my first choice, but that was because I had absolutely no understanding of the amount of work that goes into maintaining press flow for a group that is so complex. Since starting seven weeks ago, I have realized how important media is to this campus.
Our generation relies on outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and other Internet-based sources for communication. Being such a large group that has ties and involvement with so many other programs on campus, the ASUO doesn’t have many opportunities to traditionally advertise as much as they would like for every project that is going on. So instead, they rely on sources such as Facebook and Twitter to update students with what’s going on at the University. Things such as Street Faire, Earth Week, elections, the LGBTQA attack, OSPIRG, multicultural events, and many other events are constantly advertised and updated online through social media outlets. These resources give students a link to other programs and happenings that affect their overall social experience on campus.
Being a small part of the ASUO has shown me that student government relies on many people to run properly, but most importantly, student government needs student input in order to run most effectively. The ASUO exists to serve its constituents — in this case, that means every single student who attends this University. And in order for the ASUO to best serve students, it needs to have a direct connection to them, often through social networking. Keeping up with what’s going on in student government can be as easy as becoming a fan of the ASUO on Facebook and following us on Twitter. This year, we’ve expanded the ASUO’s reach on Facebook to be four times what it was at the beginning of the year — more than 1,200 people now follow their student government in this way. The next time you log on, take a moment to become one of our fans and to share your thoughts on what we can improve to better serve you. The only way we can keep improving is with the input of the student body — whether that input comes via a conversation, a wall post, or a tweet, we’d really just love to hear from you.
Find us on Facebook and Twitter, visit our Web site at http://asuo.uoregon.edu/, or e-mail us at [email protected].
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