Hello all, and welcome back to the new semester. First and foremost, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Tyler Haws and I am your student advocate for this year.

Let me explain my position. I sit on the ASUSU Executive Council that meets every Tuesday in the Senate Chambers on the third floor of the TSC as a voting member for legislation to benefit student life at USU.

I am your ombudsman, which is basically the mediator between you and the administration. This is something of extreme importance for you as students. I sit on 23, and counting, committees to represent you. I sit on committees that deal with auxiliary services – such as parking, the Taggart Student Center policy board – to ones dealing with classrooms, such as the Course Evaluations committee. I also sit on many diversity and concern committees, such as the Gender and Minority committee, Stater’s Council and Student Advisory Board. Being on these committees, I need to know what students’ opinions are on these issues. Generally, I work on polling individuals for their opinions on the issues. I am trying to improve the polling and surveying process, and so I have decided to start up a Facebook group. It will be called the “Voice Your Concerns and Initiatives”, so be on the lookout for that in the near future. I will post survey links for students to take, so I’ll have more feedback for my meetings.

Next, I am you advocate. What I mean by this is that I act on your behalf. If there is a concern that we can change, let’s do it. Or, if you have an initiative that could benefit the student body, I can help set you up with the right people to talk to. I have really tried to improve this by creating a centralized online location that these concerns and initiatives can be voiced. It is a box in the lower left-hand side of the ASUSU Web site, www.usu.edu/asus. There are different initiatives, too, that I may see in my meetings I attend, in which case, I will help different organizations of the university draw proposals for money, if that is what they need or provide them with access to an arena where they will be heard.

Did you know that there are legal services available to students? Free legal advice is available through my position. A lawyer meets with students in my office every Tuesday at 5 p.m. So if you are interested in advice regarding landlord tenant relations, divorces, criminal matters, traffic matters or whatever else, call 797-2912 to schedule an appointment.

Lastly, and definitely more of the administrative part of my position, I chair the Student Fee Board. The board is comprised of 15 to 16 of your fellow classmates that vote on proposed increases and decreases of the student fees. Administrators and the corresponding student chair present justifications and proposals for fee increases or decreases to the board and the students votes on it. After we vote on it, it is given as a recommendation to USU President Stan Albrecht, who has the final say. We actually just had the meeting Jan. 19. The amount the fee board recommended was a $9.87 increase, so it was quite a conservative year and we are proud of that.

I pride myself on helping my fellow classmates and try to represent them to the best of my abilities. My door is always open, and I would love to talk about whatever is on your mind. My office hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday 10 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday 10:20 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. My office is TSC 340.

Tyler Haws can be contacted by e-mail at hawzie@gmail.com