In a unanimous vote, the Student Senate decided Wednesday to form a new committee with the goal to “make Senate better.”
Proposed by the ASUO Senate president and vice president, the new committee will hold informal meetings, possibly at Track Town Pizza, that are open to the public. They want to encourage student involvement and learn more about what students want from the governing body.
Committee meetings will serve as an internal review board for senators to talk about issues of interest as well as to propose changes to the current governing process.
Senate Vice President Sara Hamilton said it is possible that the entire process of the Senate could change permanently.
“We hope we can do something lasting,” she said.
All changes would go before the ASUO Senate Rules Committee before being enacted.
The Senate is currently prohibited from making resolutions on anything unrelated to the incidental fee. The rules committee will meet today to discuss adding a clause for issues resolutions that don’t necessarily involve the fee but still affect students. The committee will meet in Friendly 206 at 4 p.m.
The Senate comprises 18 students who represent academic and financial aspects of the University. For example, three senators sit on the five-member Programs Finance Committee, which meets with each of the more than 130 student groups and then recommends to the Senate how much student fees should be allocated to each group. The ASUO Athletic Department Finance Committee, also comprising three senators, acts as a liaison between the Athletic Department and student government, deciding on seating, ticket distribution and prices for each coming year. The Senate as a whole decides on the final allocation of more than $10 million collected from the student body, into which each student is currently paying $191 per term. This number can increase by as much as 7 percent any given year based on the Senate’s decisions.
Student Senate President Stephanie Erickson said at a Jan. 18 meeting that she wants to “increase access to students, make ourselves better and be more active on campus.”
Erickson and Hamilton passed out a memo that noted the “exceptional achievements” of the Senate so far this year, but which also called on senators to explore their potential as a governing body.
“We believe there is no such thing as too much communication or too much exploration of further ideas,” the memo stated.
Erickson said she was interested in how the students feel about the governing body, particularly how comfortable they are bringing concerns and questions to the Senate’s attention.
“Do students feel they can talk to us, or are they scared of us?” Erickson asked.
The majority of senators at the weekly meeting showed interest in attending the meetings by raising their hands. One senator, Wally Hicks, raised his hand in excitement when Erickson asked who would attend, and then he asked, “I think what everybody’s wondering is will there be beer?”
Contact ASUO senators at 346-3749 or via e-mail at [email protected].
Contact the campus and federal politics reporter at [email protected]