The Associated Students of Western New Mexico University (ASWNMU) is an organization that is led by elected and appointed WNMU students. According to the ASWNMU website and its constitution, the purpose of student government is to represent the students’ interests, safeguard academic freedom and student rights, provide campus events and activities, and promote student morale.
ASWNMU members represent student interests through ten districts covering academic and student services.
Recently, The Mustang Newspaper created a survey to discover what students knew about their elected student representatives. The survey asked general questions about ASWNMU and was answered by one hundred students. Of the one hundred students, 27% were freshmen, 25% were sophomores, 25% were juniors, 19% were seniors, and 4% were graduate students.
Students were surveyed on three important questions:
The first one was Have you heard of ASWNMU?: 64% answered Yes, while 36% answered No.
The second question asked was What is the purpose of ASWNMU?: 55% of students answered Advocate For Students, 37% answered I Don’t Know, 19% answered To Make Events, and 3% answered Other.
The final question was What time would be best for you to attend an ASWNMU public meeting?: 42% answered Afternoon Hours, 10% answered Morning Hours, 18% answered Noon, and 30% chose Night.
The Mustang Newspaper staff met with ASWNMU Vice President Brenda Hernandez, to get her opinion on the results of the survey.
Q: Is this information helpful for you? What will you do with this information given to you?
It is very helpful in many ways in the fact that one hundred students gave their opinion on the awareness of Associated Students of Western New Mexico University. First of all, they don’t even know what the initials mean or represent. This is something we need to look into to, at least, so they could know what that means. Another thing we need to review are the meetings. It is something that, as a student body, we need to focus on what students want. We are here to serve them. This is our work and I would love to see more students attend the public meetings. Although students have the responsibility to check their email every day, we can take into consideration their availability to attend these meetings.
ASWNMU holds public meetings, available to students and university employees, every other Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. in the Miller Library. Students are emailed the agenda no later than 48 hours prior to the public meeting. ASWNMU offices are located on the third floor of the Student Memorial Center. For more information, visit http://aswnmu.wnmu.edu.
