Members of Marquette Student Government are planning to retool the way they communicate with students after their adviser, Jon Dooley, made some critical comments about the organization's ability to represent the student body at a Senate meeting in early November.

Dooley, assistant dean of student development, told senators at their Nov. 3 meeting that their fight over the now-tabled Reserve Fund Budget Amendment was nothing more than a political power struggle and that they were losing sight of constituents' concerns.

This should be a glaring concern for students. MUSG members that ignore their constituents in a struggle for political power are not serving the community they claim to represent.

In order to monitor advances within the organization, MUSG has set up a "progress board" in its office so students can see which senators are working on which projects and how the projects are progressing. Senate members are brainstorming ways to make the progress board more accessible to the entire student body, according MUSG President Alex Hermanny.

At tonight's Senate meeting, MUSG members will hear a proposed initiative requiring senators to spend one hour of their designated two office hours outside the office among their constituents, according to Declan Glynn, legislative vice president and creator of the initiative. This is another way MUSG hopes to improve communication with the student body.

We support the proposed initiative and urge Senate members to adopt it. We also call on MUSG to have its progress board available to students in an online format by the beginning of next semester and provide a way for students to send feedback to the senators working on projects.

On Nov. 22, some MUSG members told the Tribune that many of their projects are finally being accomplished not only because of Dooley's recommendations, but because it took time to obtain feedback and navigate around procedures. This is good news but it needs to be built upon.

MUSG's admitted communication problems still remain. Until that problem is solved, we will continue to challenge MUSG members to reach out to their constituents. Students have the right to know what their elected leaders are doing and, more importantly, the progress they are making.

Making such information available for student review online would ensure that MUSG's electorate is as informed as possible on every initiative MUSG undertakes. It will also go a long way towards helping the students decipher which senators are working for the student body, and which ones are not.

The perceived friction between MUSG members was part of a regular process that senators go through as they are adjusting to their new positions, Dooley said. This friction has passed and senators are in the process of refocusing their efforts on the students, he said.

Now that the political infighting is over, MUSG can concentrate on informing its electorate.