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Sept. 2, 2005
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ASR senators strive to improve campus life
After a smashing start to the year with the Sister Hazel concert, the Association of Student Representatives (ASR) has subsequently announced that the free promotional Sister Hazel cups can now be used throughout the year at Aramark dining facilities for 59 cent, environmentally friendly soda refills. Welcome to the world of your student government: registering successes, both big and small. Since 1994, ASR has initiated or given backing to substantial projects such as the Tigers' Den renovations, the Honor Code, Health Services renovations, card access, cable TV, the Escart, campus recycling and more. Without ASR there wouldn't be a Victory Bell, a Tiger statue, the Murchison computer lab, an New Student Orientation concert or the championship banners in the Bell Center.
The successes of each year's group are built on the foundations set by those who came before them. Matt Young was elected president in 1995 on his "three C's" platform - cable, convenience store and coffeehouse. Eight years later he finally learned that his convenience store was a reality. (Yes, he had moved on.) Online faculty evaluations? Though a hot topic in today's ASR, this group will never see them.
This is frustrating for them. Indeed, each new group learns the tough lessons of their predecessors. Change takes time and money. When changes occur, reality can be harsh. Would ASR have pushed card access so hard if they saw the price tag of the Tiger Card fee? The student body scoffed, too, that the expensive Tiger statue, backed by ASR, represented lost scholarship money.
It is a credit to ASR and the University that ASR has accomplished most of its goals, though. ASR usually gets what it wants. Its members do their homework, compare with other schools, connect with administrators and demonstrate great persistence - if not patience.
And yet, despite its success, ASR continues to fight an image of ineffectiveness. When the group touts its successes, they are vilified. When they don't, they are admonished for doing nothing. Many of their wins happen privately. Last year Residential Life went to ASR asking if it would support phasing out dorm room carpeting. The feedback was a swift and resounding "no." Similar positions, on an array of small topics, are determined through various informal channels all the time.
The group isn't perfect. Perhaps student government should take on greater political and social agenda other than one based on amenities. A discussion several years ago about whether or not MLK Day should be a University holiday was dispassionate. Instead, the hot topic on the agenda at that meeting: the University was throttling back the air conditioning at night to cut utility costs. Even so, when 9/11 and the Tsunami happened, ASR led the student outpouring of support and giving - as they do today for flood victims in New Orleans. Like the students they represent, ASR has always had heart.
That heart is usually reflected in their efforts to make Trinity the best it can be. To be sure, students can count on ASR to work tirelessly on their behalf, whether on a big project or simply toiling away, 59 cents at a time.
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