Student government changes with the times and the University

Whether you knew it as the ASG, the Student Senate, the FSSO, or the USG, student government at the University has been a part of campus life for 110 of UConn's 123-year history.

Photo: University Archives

Leaders of the Associated Student Government debate an issue in 1970.

The first version of student government was called the Students' Organization, formed in 1894.

The earliest record of the Students' Organization is a listing of its officers in the first issue of The Lookout, UConn's first student newspaper, in May 1896. The president in 1896 was John Nelson Fitts, a member of the Class of 1897, who later became UConn's first dean of engineering.

An early issue for student government was a college policy making it compulsory for male students to provide man-ual labor three hours each day. Over the next year the faculty eliminated compulsory labor, and athletics began to take up more of the students' leisure time.

In the early 1900s, the entire student body made up the SO, which became the legislative branch of student government, while a newly formed Student Council was the executive branch. The Student Council could, "for just cause," recommend to a faculty committee for student affairs "suspension or dismissal of any member of the student body."

By 1918 the faculty "proposed a plan of student self-government" that apparently led to the formation of the Student Senate in 1922. It would be the most enduring form of student self-governance, surviving as part of what became known as the Associated Student Government (ASG) in the 1930s.

In the later half of the 20th century, UConn's student government debated a variety of issues, but its chief responsibility was control over the budgets of other student organizations, including the student newspaper and radio station.

A national debate in the 1930s on whether military training should continue to be mandatory was one of the first times student government began to consider socio-political issues beyond the campus. By 1970, that kind of debate turned to the Vietnam War — and on May 4 of that year, the Student Senate voted to join a national student strike as a war protest, also voting to cut support for the upkeep of Jonathan the Husky, labeled a "symbol of the establishment."

Students were questioning authority — including student leaders. During the ASG election in the spring of 1972, the Connecticut Daily Campus questioned the election process as well as the effectiveness of the ASG. In a series of editorials, the Campus called for a vote of no confidence, urging students to write-in the name of the fictitious Bill X. Carlson for ASG president and vice president.

The Carlson phantom received over 1,600 votes for president and nearly 900 for vice president; however, the Student Senate swore in the losing endorsed candidates following the March 14 election. The University administration called for a review of student government. The Senate voted for the redrafting of the student government constitution.

A constitutional convention resulted in students' approving creation of the Federation of Student and Service Organizations (FSSO), which encompassed the Student Union Board of Governors, the Residence Hall Council, and the Commuters' Union. A Central Committee, similar to the Senate, was the legislative body.

In 1980, the FSSO itself was dissolved, and replaced by the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), which continues to function today.

-- Mark J. Roy '74 (CLAS)