Congratulations to Thomas Kincaid, Lyndsey Hummert and Ashley Earnest. After triumphing in the much-delayed, and then extended, election cycle, the three of you deserve a break before you take office this May – a grace period before the campus, and the Editorial Board, start looking your way with instructions, demands, commands and criticism.
Of course, you’re not going to get one. For, as we all know, there is no rest for the wicked – or the recently elected.
No rest, and no time – for to be prepared to hit the ground running you need to be crouched at the starting line, ready for the shot that will send you on your way. And while you’re waiting for that moment, allow the Editorial Board to give you your first few bits of friendly advice – on how to deal with a problem that’s plagued the Senate for years, no less.
It’s no secret that communication between the student body and the Senate is problematic. This communication gap fosters cynicism and misunderstanding – the Senate feels under appreciated for what they do, because the student body doesn’t know enough about what the Senate does to be appreciative.
This need not be the case. With a few simple new changes and a bit of effort, the Senate could close much of the gap between our campus’ representatives and the represented. The wall of silence that obfuscates relations between the Senate and the student body must be torn down. While the Senate can’t do this alone, it can use the tools available to it to take the first steps towards such a goal.
The first, and most potentially useful, tool is the Student Senate Web site. That’s right, the Student Senate has a Web site. Not that there’s much of anything on it, of course. Though the Senate’s Web page is home to links that promise information regarding Senate leaders and access to minutes from Senate meetings, the truth is that little of this content is actually there. But that the site today is a waste of bandwidth does not mean that such must always be the case.
To engage the student body, the Senate needs to let students know what it’s up to. The Web site is a perfect tool to this end. A day before each meeting, the Senate should post a list of the topics that are on the agenda for that week. The day after each meeting, the Senate should post the minutes from the meeting, including a record of all the votes that took place. Every week or so, committee chairmen should post on the site a small summary of what their committee is up to.
This information would go a long way to clearing away the air of mystique that currently confounds campus and Senate relations. It wouldn’t alleviate the problem of student apathy regarding the Senate, but it would, at least, show the campus that the Senate is doing its part. And that alone would be a major step forward.
