The Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) is PSU’s student government. ASPSU elections are just around the corner, with the first senator debate on April 30 in Parkway North, Smith Memorial Student Union, at 4:30 p.m.
ASPSU has five branches—the Leadership Core, the Senate, the Operations Board, the Judicial Review Board and the Student Fee Committee. The Senate has six members, making it the largest branch of student government.
Michael Jones, a current ASPSU Senator, described the purpose of ASPSU and the Senate. “Basically, [it’s] a bridge between the student body and the PSU administration,” Jones said. “[The goal is] to try to bridge that gap between the two.”
The Senate bridges this gap by drafting and voting on resolutions on various campus matters. These resolutions then go to the Board of Trustees, who will decide whether or not they are implemented.
The Senate works to pass resolutions which benefit the school. However, the school has the final say on how much power the Senate’s resolutions have. Even when resolutions pass and are supported by the students, their implementation is entirely up to the PSU Board of Trustees—who can veto them.
Resolutions take on a variety of forms. The Senate publishes all resolutions online for the public to see. One recent resolution was the Trans and Queer Student Success and Retention Project, a proposed pilot project to put school resources into supporting and retaining queer and transgender students by helping them gain access to scholarships, transit passes and other material needs.
Jones also discussed how he’s working to pass a resolution to generate more support for out-of-state students. He hopes to continue supporting this resolution if reelected in the upcoming election.
Many Senate candidates talked about what resolutions they would like to see pushed through ASPSU, if elected. Senate candidate William Scholz spoke about using his prospective position in the Senate to push for more clean heating and clean energy on campus.
“The types of energy that we use right now, I believe we use a lot of hydropower already, but we could really be investing in things like solar,” Scholz said. “We have lots of space on the tops of roofs that we could be doing that for, and it wouldn’t be that expensive, especially considering that we use coal as the other primary energy provider—coal and natural gas.”
When passed, these resolutions are sent directly to the Board of Trustees. However, ASPSU has no power to overrule something the Board of Trustees does.
The recent defunding of the International and English Learning program is one example of something ASPSU does not have the power to influence.
“They are cutting their funding, basically because the program is deemed [not as] desirable because there’s less people utilizing their services,” Jones said. “So, the Board of Trustees or the administration has decided to just kind of fade their funding away.”
Despite its goal of bridging the gap between students and administration, ASPSU remains unknown to many students and has historically failed to engage with the student body.
According to data ASPSU collected on last year’s election in 2023, only 8% of students voted. The highest percentage of students to vote in an ASPSU election was in 2012, when just over 10% of the student population voted.
“I don’t think the average student even knows about ASPSU,” Jones said. “A lot of students don’t even really know that they have a student government.”
According to Jones, this lack of student body participation surrounding ASPSU has led to problems. “The fact that a lot of students don’t really know about us is, for me personally, a cause for concern,” he said. “You know, issues around campus arise, and they kind of don’t know who to go to about it.”
Many fellow senators are running on a promise to work to increase engagement with ASPSU. “I believe a lot of students don’t know in general about ASPSU,” said incumbent Senator Brady Roland. “I am hoping to change that. ASPSU’s Senate is working very hard right now to reach out better to students.”
Incumbent Nehemiah Wilson is running to be one of next year’s senators. He expanded on what he believed was a reason for this disconnect. “This is a common sentiment amongst many members within student government and then people outside of student government,” he said.
“Students don’t know who the student government is,” Wilson said. “It’s just an organization here on campus. What do they do? They fight for student needs, but I got needs, and they’re not fighting for my needs.”
The senators and candidates are hard at work, hoping to increase student involvement before the elections.
“We are going to be tabling every week on Thursday for the rest of the term, and hopefully continue doing it next year as well,” Roland stated.
Wilson also talked about ASPSU’s role in connecting student groups and facilitating student events—which is a part of ASPSU’s role in supporting the student body. He wants to help the students see that ASPSU is there to support them.
“For example, the Organization of International Students—they run an event every year called International Night, and this year, they’re trying to do bigger and better,” Wilson said. “And I think last year it was in the business building. And then this year, they’re hoping to have it in the Viking Pavilion. However, that requires a bit more funding, and it requires a bit more involvement. We learned about this, and so we were actively reaching out. ‘Hey, we heard about this event’s happening, and we want to get involved.’”
These efforts are part of ASPSU’s broad campaign to represent student issues and bring those issues to the attention of the Board of Trustees.
When asked if students should invest more in ASPSU, Jones said 100%. “For the simple fact that we were designed specifically for them,” he said. “Given the fact that the administration is just so distant from the student body, I would encourage them to really look into ASPSU. Look into what we do, and if there are any problems that they feel really need to be addressed, we are the first point of contact for them.”