A new Facebook page is serving as another way for CU students and community members to follow the happenings of the University of Colorado Student Government
CUSG Watch, the new page, is intended to inform the students on the actions or plans of CU’s student government.
The idea for the page came from a casual conversation between 21-year-old junior international affairs major Daniel Ellen and 21-year-old senior and sociology major Cassie Gedbaw.
“We were just talking about starting a blog and I sort of carried that idea along while I went to talk to Cassie,” Ellen said. “This page has more educational purposes if anything else.”
Ellen also said the page will help keep the student government more accountable for the decisions they have made.
CUSG Watch was created in February and has been steadily gaining support from the students of CU. To date, the page has 133 “likes” and about 11,110 post viewings.
Gedbaw said the page will work as a neutral outlet for students to provide their thoughts on CUSG’s activities.
“I think this is a great way to keep track of what is going on in the student government with a lot of things going on at once,” Gedbaw said. “It serves to be an unbiased outlet for students to get informed and post their comments or opinions on the issues that are going on.”
CUSG Watch has been posting frequent updates on CU’s student government, such as the recent controversial proposed budget cuts for student groups and times and dates for Legislative Council meetings.
CUSG Public Relations Director Kristy Gustavson said CUSG on its own already has multiple means of distributing information to the public and providing transparency through its website, online bill and vote database.
Gustavson also said CUSG is committed to posting legislation and agendas on its UMC bulletin board, but that CUSG is in no way discouraging this new page.
“If anything, the creation of this page just lets students know what CUSG is doing from a different perspective,” Gustavson said. “The creation of this page doesn’t negatively affect CUSG in any way; it’s just a different way for students to get information about what CUSG is doing.”
Twenty-one-year-old senior and sociology major, Abby Anderson, was one of the people who liked the page and said she encourages others to do the same.
“I think it is a really important page to know what the student government is doing,” Anderson said. “It is really accessible, unbiased and helps me pay attention to what they are doing.”
While some students said they would use the page to keep track of CUSG, others said they wouldn’t.
Alana English, a 19-year-old sophomore pre-journalism major, said although CUSG Watch may be a good idea, she will not personally follow or like it.
“I might just check it out occasionally if there are certain issues covered by the CUSG that might interest me,” English said. “But other than that, I do not think I would follow it as closely.”
CUSG Watch is a public page, accessible to anyone who wants information about the decisions made by CUSG.
Visit CUSG Watch on Facebook to learn more.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Adelina Shee at Adelina.shee@colorado.edu.
