ASMSU should have informed students of Dubai trip

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Student politicians jet setting across the globe without telling anybody can make people begin to wonder where exactly their tax dollars are going.

Three weeks ago, ASMSU Student Assembly Chairperson Kyle Dysarz and Academic Assembly Chairperson Kristy Currier traveled to Dubai to construct an official student government for the MSU Dubai campus.

The trip had a budget of $4,500. Dysarz and Currier made their plans and traveled without informing their two ASMSU assemblies before the trip. ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.

The trip was made to bridge a nine-hour time difference and work closely with the Dubai Student Council to make a constitutional amendment detailing the construction of a new Dubai council. If the amendment passes, MSU students will be able to vote on the changes during spring elections.

However, the decision to travel to Dubai was made without consulting or telling the greater ASMSU population about the plans prior to departing the country.

It would have been beneficial for the traveling party to at least consult with the assemblies for discussion regarding the trip, especially considering it was funded by student tax dollars.

It’s understandable that ASMSU wouldn’t want to let the public and media scrutinize the trip prior to leaving, but the whole of ASMSU should have been informed so the representatives could help formulate the most effective mission possible.

The ASMSU office of the chair, comprised of Dysarz, Currier and four others, has the power to do what they want with the funds allotted to them. They are selected by the ASMSU representatives, who are elected by the MSU student population.

Their budget was approved by the whole of ASMSU, and the chairs were not required to divulge the information of their trip. Still, they are elected officials, and it would have been nice to inform the MSU student population where their money is going before it’s already spent.

Students might be upset by the usage of their tax money to fund this trip, and might be tempted to protest the usage of the funds, but that would all be retroactive.

The real time to act is when students vote for their college representatives in the spring elections. If they’re upset with ASMSU’s leadership in the spring, they should voice their opinion then.

The trip accomplished what ASMSU had set out to do — write the constitutional change to implement a Dubai council. Although being in Dubai in person might have made the process a little bit easier, many students might think that it couldn’t have been accomplished in East Lansing via telephone, e-mail or Skype.

Although many things could have been done with the use of technology, it can’t be ignored that Dysarz and Currier established valuable personal connections that made the job much easier. But this shouldn’t give ASMSU free reign to make an overseas trip every semester.

Although some students might wonder if the trip was worth our tax money, an international student government should be thought of as a unique aspect of MSU.

That ASMSU traveled 7,000 miles to include nearly 100 students in the government should remind all MSU students to remain active here in East Lansing.

The trip was made. There’s nothing that can change that and the goals that were set were accomplished during the trip, which is more than some U.S. politicians can say after their trips.

But next time, the community should be given a heads up when it involves student money.

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