In response to the recent Daily Campus articles, I would like to offer my support for the work and the efforts achieved by the Student Senate throughout the past two semesters, including our meeting on Jan. 30.
Each student senator and chair devotes more than five hours every week to serve you, their fellow students, and to promote student issues to the administration of our university.
As a former chair myself, I truly believe that committees are the backbone of our Student Senate. Through the efforts of the entire Student Senate and our committees, we have been able to achieve much to address student concerns this year.
We have had a crucial role in increasing the amount of money allocated to student organizations and creating the 24-hour Fondren Library. Student Senate has also passed more than 15 resolutions and has held numerous senatorial forums to discuss student concerns such as the university calendar, the Memorial Health Center, the GEC Requirements and Giddy-Up.
To reassure the student body about our resolution entitled “A Resolution to Amend the Student Senate By-Laws,” I would like to emphasize that we did not ignore any student concerns or get rid of Student Senate committees.
By merging the Environment Committee, the Diversity Committee, the Academic Enhancement Committee, and the Student Issues Committee into the newly created Student Concerns Committee, we are simply changing the way in which we look at these very important student issues, not dismantling these committees or concerns.
You may have initial worries about the legislation, but upon closer analysis you may recognize that this piece positively changes much for our organization, including chair turnover, senate training, the membership and responsibilities of committees, and our committee structure.
The legislation is not just about changing one committee or one issue; it is about reformatting the entire structure of the committees. Through the Student Concerns Committee, there will be a larger group of concerned senators, general members, and chairs to address numerous student issues, including those of environmental policy, diversity on campus, and our campus academics.
This is an important change for the better for our organization and will allow Student Senate to continue to address all students’ concerns. Student Senate is doing great things for our fellow students and the university and will continue to do so in the future.
I encourage every student to come to our meetings Tuesdays at 3:30 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Forum to see the positive changes we are implementing for this campus.
Want to submit a student concern? Fill out our comment form at smu.edu/studentsenate. Want to personally make some positive changes for our campus? Run for a Senate position. Want to see the legislation (including the piece mentioned above) and minutes from our meetings? Check out our website.
Student Senate is here to serve you, the students, and will continue to do so with improved aspects of training, chair turnover, membership, and structure of our committees.
About the writer:
Katherine Tullos is a Junior Political Science and Psychology major. She can be reached at [email protected].
