To advance higher education by empowering current and future students to advocate on their own behalf for the accessibility, affordability, and quality of the public institutions of higher education in the state of Michigan

The Student Association of Michigan (SAM) was founded in 2007 by representatives of the student governments of its member institutions.

SAM exists to serve the students of its member institutions without taking on excessively partisan behavior. It is a primary goal of the executive board to continue a tradition of responsible and cooperative action on behalf of our constituents, the students of Michigan's higher education institutions.

We are aware that many student-led organizations can be pushed in one direction or another along the political spectrum, but we stand determined to establish and preserve SAM as an impartial institution whose only bias is towards the needs and desires of its constituents.

We will leave partisan politics to the ideologues and politicians - our goal is to provide a forum for idea-sharing and collaboration to connect Michigan's institutions of higher education and to provide a platform for common-ground advocacy on behalf of students, dealing with issues that affect all of us.

The decisions we make and the action we take are determined by a vote of our members and are based on the most objective assessment possible of the issues we tackle.

To that end we partner with various organizations such as the United States Student Association on issues we and our constituents choose, to share resources and knowledge that we can utilize in our efforts.

We stand ready and willing to partner with organizations that share our goals, no matter their partisan leanings, so long as those organizations themselves demonstrate a sound moral fiber and goals and operational procedures consistent with our mission statement.

At the end of the day, however, our loyalties lie with the students of Michigan's higher education institutions, not with the agendas of our partners. We exist to be the students'  voice on the issues that affect them.

Our Mission Statement, above, outlines the core principles of this organization and the common cause to which we have committed ourselves.