The Iowa State Student Government held its second town hall meeting of the year, and first town hall meeting of the semester, on Thursday night.

However, out of over 36,000 students, one student was in attendance. On top of low student turnout, only eight student government representatives showed up. 

Former Student Body President Cole Staudt held the first town hall with the current student body president and then-vice president, Cody West, in the fall of 2016.

Liking the town hall concept, West and current Student Government Vice President Cody Smith incorporated it into their campaign, planning to make it a more regular event.

“This was something we promised during our campaign, and we’re here, and we’re not going to discontinue it because we made a promise,” Smith said.

A town hall meeting held on April 27 had seven students show up, as well as a higher number of Student Government representatives than the Aug. 30 town hall.

“The last [town hall meeting], we had about seven participants, and we got some good information out of it,” Smith said. “We also had follow up meetings with the students and that really reassured the students.” 

The reason for the low turnout seemed to be a collective lack of advertising and promotion, as some Student Government members weren’t aware of it until recently, including representative and Cyclone Aide Tiffany Contreras.

“Definitely we need more promotion, because last time, several weeks ahead of time people knew about it,” Contreras said. “But this time, I didn’t even know about it until I was in my diversity inclusion committee. Just any way to promote it more would be good.”

Student Body Vice President Cody Smith agreed on the conclusion that better communication would be needed to get more students involved in Iowa State Student Government.

“As far as what happens in the future, I think we can do a better job just letting students know where we are, and letting us know better how we can come to them so we can get a better participation,” Smith said.