The Minnesota Student Association is hoping a newsletter due out later this month will bring student organizations to the students.
Ben Blair, a public relations major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and chief architect of the newsletter, is shooting for a distribution of 2,000 copies of the four-page monthly newsletter. The publication will target residence halls, greek houses and any place with a lot of student traffic.
The newsletter has a scheduled deadline of Feb. 20.
MSA’s newest project comes with two goals in mind: working together to promote communication between all student organizations and creating a stronger campus community.
The student association also stressed the necessity for a student-run newsletter that focuses on campus organizations and their individual events.
“Any student involved with a student organization can use this newsletter as a vehicle to get out the purpose, goals and basically what is going on with their organization,” said MSA President Jigar Madia.
The newsletter will operate under a $1,500 budget from the group’s Special Events Fund.
MSA has had their budgets questioned in the past, which has led some members of the MSA Forum to be very skeptical about how the Forum spends their money.
Jessie Roos, MSA academic affairs chairwoman, was wary about Blair’s plan for the newsletter, and how the money would be spent.
“I was concerned that there was no plan of action,” Roos said.
She added it was not clear who would be asked to write, how writers would be attained, how many copies would be published and how the various student organizations would be informed of the opportunity to write for the newsletter.
Blair said the main problem will not be finance but getting student organizations involved.
“This is an opportunity for (the student organizations) to get their name out without doing any work except for submitting an article,” he said.
The first newsletter will focus on the student organizations and what they are involved in, Blair said.
Some of the associations targeted are La Raza, Africana student cultural centers, the Asian American Student Association, and the Queer Student Association.
Any student organization can submit an article, Blair said — the problem is getting them to do it. He added that apathy on the part of organizations will be the biggest problem.
“That’s where my role comes in, to encourage everybody to take advantage of the opportunity,” Blair said. “I hope they don’t let it pass them by.”
— Staff Reporter Andy Donohue contributed to this article.