{"id":469,"date":"2012-05-25T17:47:54","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T22:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foreignersview.wordpress.com\/?p=469"},"modified":"2021-08-20T16:56:23","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T21:56:23","slug":"what-is-asg-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/05\/25\/what-is-asg-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What is ASG?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on The Protest<\/a>. Pick up a copy if you can, they’re all around campus. If you can’t but still want to see it with all the fancy formatting, check it out on issuu<\/a>.\u00a0You can also find it here<\/a> on The Protest’s website.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"ASG<\/a><\/p>\n

We call it student government, but it\u2019s not really government in the usual sense of the word. If I have a dispute with another student, I don\u2019t go to ASG to decide who\u2019s right. ASG doesn\u2019t make laws that I have to follow. And it certainly can\u2019t put me in jail. So what exactly does it do? What is its function, and how does it affect us as Northwestern students? These questions have many possible answers. Here I offer only four:<\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n1) ASG is our country club management
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every student pays a fee of $150 for \u201cstudent activities\u201d adding up to a total of over a million dollars, and it\u2019s ASG\u2019s job to allocate these funds. The money is used to fund Dillo Day, A&O, and various other student groups. That is, things that most of us wouldn\u2019t be able to afford as individuals, but that we can afford as a group. This is essentially the purpose of a country club: very few can afford to buy their own golf course, so a bunch of people get together and pool their money to have a golf course for all the members of the club, and assign a group of people to manage the funds. Except we are forced to be part of this club, and instead of a golf course we get Regina Spektor. Many consider this to be the primary function of ASG.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n2) ASG is our parliament
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A parliament is, at its core, a group of people that talk. ASG is a place where students can discuss matters that concern them, such as the lack of Wi-Fi in the Lakefill or how bad the food is in the dining halls. In a way, this is good in itself: talking can help us figure out what is wrong with our community and how to fix it. Or if you don\u2019t really care about fixing it, at least talking about it can serve as a kind of therapy. Of course, I can always just go to any group of my own friends and talk to them about these same issues, but it is good to have a large and diverse central parliament to which anyone can take their concerns. Moreover, what ASG has to say carries more weight than what my friends have to say because the university recognizes ASG as our representative. Which takes us to . . .<\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n3) ASG is our lobbying group
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

ASG represents the voice of the students to the university administration. But how well do they do this? After all, it isn\u2019t particularly representative of the student body in the way it\u2019s elected. For example, a student who lives in a dorm and is a member of two student groups may get to vote for as many as three different senators, whereas a student who lives off-campus and isn\u2019t a member of any \u201cimportant\u201d student groups may be ineligible to vote for any senators. Even ignoring this, ASG doesn\u2019t really have any power over the administration. Morty can listen to them if he wants to, but he doesn\u2019t really have to. And even Morty doesn\u2019t have much power. It\u2019s the Board of Trustees that approved his selection and has the ultimate say in anything that happens at the university. Guess how often ASG gets to meet with them? Once a quarter. ASG sends some representatives, they give a presentation and discuss campus issues with the Board, and that\u2019s it. While ASG does meet more frequently with individual committees within the Board of Trustees, the conclusion is that your average Washington lobbying group has much more power over the U.S. government than ASG does over the university. They can make phone calls and meet with congressmen whenever they want, offer them campaign money, and listen in on their meetings. So ASG may be our lobbying group, but it\u2019s not a very good one.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n4) ASG is our Model U.N.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

A student who wants to become a politician can get experience working while they\u2019re at Northwestern by becoming an ASG senator. In this way they can develop skills that might serve them later in their career: they can propose bills, debate them, vote on them, and they even get to play with real money! Plus, ASG bears many striking similarities with the United States Congress. It\u2019s bureaucratic, ineffective, has apathetic constituents, and represents some of them more than others. In sum, it\u2019s the perfect training grounds for real-life politics.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may have other minor functions, but I believe these are the main ones. I should point out that this was not at all a normative analysis; you might actually think that it\u2019s perfect the way it is, or that it only needs some minor reforms. I think that we as a student body ought to constantly question our institutions, especially ASG, since it\u2019s the only one that claims to represent all of us.<\/p>\n

You might ask, for example, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t ASG have power to make direct changes at the university, without having to go through administrative hoops?\u201d Or, \u201cWhy do we even have a separate body to represent the students, a completely independent one for the faculty, and none for other university employees?\u201d Or, \u201cIf the Board of Trustees is in charge of university policy, but we\u2019re the ones who have to live and work here, why aren\u2019t they forced to at least talk to us more often?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is our responsibility as students to ask these questions, and to have these conversations with the university administration. Otherwise when the administration does something we don\u2019t like, like raising tuition by 4.3 percent, we’ll be limited to criticizing the outcomes, and forget about the processes that inevitably led to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on The Protest. Pick up a copy if you can, they’re all around campus. If you can’t but still want to see it with all the fancy formatting, check it out on issuu.\u00a0You can also find it here on The Protest’s website. We call it student government, but it\u2019s not really … Continue reading “What is ASG?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,25,41,62,63,72],"class_list":["post-469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-asg","tag-democracy","tag-government","tag-northwestern","tag-nu-protest","tag-politics"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3A68f-7z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":745,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2013\/05\/07\/cultural-appropriation-or-why-cant-i-wear-a-sombrero\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":0},"title":"Cultural Appropriation, or: Why can’t I wear a sombrero?","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"May 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was written for\u00a0The Protest. If you're a Northwestern student, you've probably received an email from ASG and Alianza calling for a \"respectful celebration of Cinco de Mayo.\" The letter explained what the date actually means to Mexicans, and among other things, contained the following statement: Unfortunately, instead of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HA1194350","src":"https:\/\/foreignersview.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/05\/ha1194350.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":278,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/01\/19\/in-defense-of-the-living-wage-campaign\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":1},"title":"In defense of the Living Wage Campaign","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"January 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a response to this column on The Daily Northwestern. Thanks to Tyler Zimmer and N____ S_______ for their helpful comments. Last week, Ryan Fazio wrote a column for the Daily criticizing the Living Wage Campaign. Now that the dust has settled and the workers have won back their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":507,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/07\/08\/what-went-wrong-in-paraguay\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":2},"title":"What Went Wrong in Paraguay?","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"July 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This article was originally posted on The Protest. It's a rough translation of the original in Spanish, with an expanded background and English language references. As you may have heard, Paraguay's leftist president Fernando Lugo was impeached a couple of weeks ago, on June 22. Our parliament charged him with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/7f\/Fernando_Lugo_Mendez_%28copyred%29.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/03\/01\/letter-to-the-editor-its-time-to-fight-for-our-rights\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":3},"title":"Letter to the Editor: It’s time to fight for our rights!","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"March 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I got a letter to the editor published on the Daily today. Here's an excerpt: Every time the city government does something students don't like, there is a lot of angry talk on campus. \"They have no right to do this! They don't care about us!\u00a0Morty, come save us!\" Read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/10\/18\/daily-columnist-dangerously-shortsighted\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":4},"title":"Daily columnist dangerously shortsighted","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"October 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This piece first appeared on The Protest. You can also read it there, the formatting is way fancier. If you haven't already read the latest installment of Northwestern racism, courtesy of The Daily Northwestern, take a deep breath and read it now. The piece is so awful from beginning to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":797,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2013\/02\/10\/obamas-hopeful-rhetoric-in-new-immigration-proposal-fails-to-hide-dark-history-of-deportation\/","url_meta":{"origin":469,"position":5},"title":"Obama\u2019s hopeful rhetoric in new immigration proposal fails to hide dark history of deportation","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This post first appeared on\u00a0The Protest. Last Tuesday President Obama gave a much anticipated speech on immigration reform. His words were typical of what we\u2019ve come to expect of his post-2008 persona; uninspired calls for \u201ccompromise\u201d and \u201cbipartisanship,\u201d increased deportations for the many, and a \u201cpath to citizenship\u201d for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1076,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469\/revisions\/1076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}