Student Assembly
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Student Assembly is a common name the legislative branch of many university student governments in the United States. Universities that call their legislative councils "Student Assembly" include Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, Cornell, and the State University of New York (SUNY).
Michigan State University
Michigan State's Student Assembly comprises one half of the ASMSU undergraduate student government, along with the Academic Assembly. At MSU, the Student Assembly has control over student-life affairs, and controls three seats in the University Academic Governance System, as well as 96.5% of the ASMSU budget. The number of representatives per college varies on the population of the college, like the U.S. House of Representatives.
The ASMSU Student Assembly has five officers and five staff members. The Chair, Vice-Chair for Internal Affairs, Vice-Chair for External Affairs, Vice-Chair for Funding, and Vice-Chair for Programming are elected each April by the newly-elected representatives. The Assembly usually - but not always - votes its own members to leadership positions. The staff members are hired by a Human Resources hiring committee. They include the Director and Assistant Director of Legislative Affiars, the Director of Community Affairs, the Director of Legal Services, and the Director of Student Defenders. Three of these staff members, the Director and Assistant Director of Legislative Affiars and the Director of Community Affairs, make up the E-Staff, a lobbying group that works closely with the ASMSU Academic Assembly Dugba to lobby the Michigan state legislature on behalf of the almost 40,000 undergraduate students of Michigan State Univerisity.
University of Michigan
The Michigan Student Assembly (MSA) is the University of Michigan's student government. It represents both undergraduate and graduate students. The number of representatives per college varies on the population of the college, like the U.S. House of Representatives. Thus the College of Literature, Science and Arts (LSA) has almost half of the seats on the assembly, since it is by far the university's largest college.
MSA is governed by a president and vice-president who are popularly elected by the student body at-large. Elections for representatives and officers are highly competitive and campaigning is a very important part of the life of an MSA member.