A recent survey of 283 random UA students concluded that 53 percent of those surveyed did not know what ASUA is.

ASUA, short for the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, is the University of Arizona's student government. It recently commissioned a 400-level management and information systems class to analyze the organization and evaluate the services it provides.

ASUA President Benjamin Driggs, however, played down the survey's importance.

"The real problem is, what is in a name?" he said. "People know that we have a student government, but they don't know that it's called ASUA. The survey is interesting, but it doesn't necessarily mandate change except in that we need more outreach."

Jim Drnek, assistant dean of students and ASUA adviser, focused on lack of recognition for the organization.

"There are things we do that people aren't aware of," he said. "This mirrors the cynicism that people have of all government."

The MIS report also detailed various areas of ASUA needing revision.

The team found that the overall government structure discouraged communication between different ASUA segments. It characterized the current system as "inefficient and clique-based."

The report also called for quick action against bylaw infractions which currently plague the organization.

"The ASUA constitution is so large that not everyone reads through it," said Gilbert Davidson, undergraduate senator and ASUA liason to the MIS group. "When you're first elected or appointed, it would be good to have information sessions to go through the constitution and bylaws."

Also addressed was the need for continuity from year to year.

"What I would like to see done is taking an already existing position or creating a new position of historian," Davidson said.

Driggs agreed.

"I'm most interested in the need for more continuity," Driggs said. "There is a very high turnover each year. Consequently, there are a lot of people who do jobs in a different way or don't necessarily know what to do."

In light of ongoing joint meetings over the future of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, the report also called for a revamping of the legislative process, stating that the organization "has obviously failed as an operational system." The student survey reported that only 1.4% of those surveyed knew what their elected senators were doing.

Aside from the legislative woes, the report advised ASUA to attract outside funding for the escort service, create a support systems analyst to handle World-Wide-Web pages and increase the use of the ASUA logo across the board to "increase student awareness and participation."

No members of the MIS report team were reachable at the time of publication.