You think you know … but you have no idea. This is the Diary of Associated Students Inc.

For two years, I was an elected member of ASI, our campus student government.

I always wished we could do a show like MTV’s “Diary” to show students what really goes on. I saw a lot there that many other students did not. I have always been open in telling my friends what goes on, but as a whole, most of you have no clue.

Did you ever notice how you see a lot of the ASI representatives right around election time but then never again? Why wonder?

ASI board members care only about the students when they need students to vote them into office. And once they get in, there is no accountability to you on what they do with their time.

I’m about to graduate and I want the younger generation of students to become active citizens of this college and learn what ASI does so you can hold it accountable for your future. I am going out on a limb here to tell you some things that happened in my time.

Every month, student representatives of Associated Students from all 23 CSU campuses meet to discuss important issues for our students. Does stuff actually get accomplished? Sure.

But most people who attend are just waiting for the conference to end so they can booze it up in the hotel rooms. And when ASI is paying for your hotel, food and travel, that saves a lot of money for alcohol.

The president always has a suite and the party begins there. At one of the conferences back in my day, I heard that a resident of the hotel we were at decided to “help us kids have fun” and gave the students from Humboldt marijuana. Yeah, like those kids need any more weed!

If you weren’t in the pot room or the president’s bar, you were in the room of a representative from another CSU and you two were hooking up. These conferences were very suitable for the once-a-month booty call.

No need to put a room at Motel 6 on that credit card your girlfriend doesn’t know about. Oh no, ASI has got the room for you.

It’s basically a nice little vacation on the students’ dime.

But when so many representatives barely even went into the ASI office it must have felt like a constant vacation. They’d show up for the mandatory board meetings, but the only other time you saw them was when they came in to pick up their paychecks. I often wondered what it was that so many of the officers did with their time.

Oh yeah — nothing. Unless you count downloading naked pictures of themselves. Wait, I forgot to tell you that story.

You see, all ASI computers are password protected and until recently there wasn’t a good tech guy like they have now.

Well, I stupidly let another officer use my password to print out something really quick. I figured he would just throw away the little slip with my password on it, but a few months later I realized I was way wrong.

While working on a project, I opened My Pictures and saw 20 or so thumbnails of infra-red pictures. Not knowing what they were, I opened one to discover it was that same officer having sex with a girl. Besides being totally disgusted to find that on my computer, I was mad because I thought I could trust him.

When confronted, he blamed a friend, playing it off as a joke. And yet he also left his updated resume up, which doesn’t strike me as being particularly humorous, nixing the “joke” excuse.

And another thing: Would you be concerned to know that the ASI president got his/her own credit card? I was. Especially when I heard one former president got his taken away after months of “business lunches,” surprisingly taking place in the hometown of his girlfriend and other miscellaneous, unnecessary expenses. We were never made aware of any consequences he suffered for his actions.

A former president also wanted to go on a trip to a conference in Washington, D.C. for spring break. No need to waste your money to hit up MTV Spring Break in Cabo when ASI will send you to the nation’s capital.

While the president couldn’t go, three of us were actually sent, and I was one of them. We were able to do some sightseeing, but we spent the majority of the time at the conference learning about new laws and actually met with Congresswoman Doris Matsui’s people on student initiatives.

The ASI board can actually work for you just like we were able to in D.C., however, a majority of the board’s make-up has been people suckered into running, not knowing a thing about what they are doing, and led by a few who have been in ASI and know how to get what they want.

Separate the government board from the rest of ASI and you have a fine organization. From the Office of Governmental Affairs to Peak Adventures to Safe Rides, ASI serves its true purpose of serving the students.

I strongly believe that students have the right to be democratically represented, and it’d be nice if the government board actually did that. But they spend their time on meaningless issues and wasting our money. Until that changes it’ll continue to be a $10 million organization run by a majority of 18- to 22- year-olds who have their own best interest at heart.

I tried my best in the time I was there, but one person can only do so much. The question I leave with you as I move on is, ‘What are you going to do about it?’

Will some of what I have just told you come back to bite me? Probably, but we all have the right to ask the hard questions and not be afraid to speak our minds. It’s our money, it’s our representation.