The first meeting of this year’s Student Senate, a student organization that, according to its website, has the goal of “promoting and defending the rights and interests of the entire student body,” took place Tuesday night.
The meeting was held in the Sellers Hall Lounge instead of the typical location in the Student Center due to sorority recruitment.
The meeting was chaired by Student Body Vice President Jeff Chicoine and, after addressing the order of the items on the itinerary, settled in to discuss matters of student representation.
Some of the matters included whether to remove a currently vacant Coalition for Club Sports delegate seat or not and if university students with disabilities are adequately represented or not.
Catherine Holland, a senior, was the first to make petition the Senate to add a delegate seat for the Disability Resource Center by telling the Senate there needs to be adequate representation.
Currently, there is representation for many students; most minority groups are represented. Students with physical, mental or other disabilities are not represented in the Senate. Some students believe this is counterproductive due to the nature of the Senate.
“Student government is charged with being a powerful voice for the students,” said Donald Stuckey, a student who spoke in favor of the DRC receiving a delegate seat.
The Coalition for Club Sports was recommended, by Student Body President Jelani McGadney, to lose the delegate seat, in part to avoid possible conflict of interest if there are any Senators who take part in club sports and also to “encourage people from Club Sports to attend” the Student Senate meetings.
The argument made in favor of elimination of the delegate seat for the Club Sports Coalition was that one can join a sport or other activity but the other delegate seats represent a way of life, often not chosen, and as such would mean joining a sports organization was not a way of life as much as an activity.
This remained a hot issue spurning much debate until two student representatives from the Coalition for Club Sports were given the chance to make their case.
“We don’t always hold meetings,” one said, “but we are active.”
She made her case to the Senate that there were times when some of the women’s sports teams had to fundraise or pay out of pocket to use Rynearson Stadium and use the lights for night matches. According to the representative, it was very expensive, and they had to plead their case to the University’s administration to make things more cost effective. This, she said, would not happen if club sports had a delegate in the Senate.
“Club sports need a voice in Student Government,” the representative said.
After debate, the motion was made to table the debate on club sports representation until the next meeting.
Amplify the Arts, a student organization that moves to build collaboration between arts and culture organizations, was awarded nearly $2,000 to pay for additional resources for upcoming events.
The student senators have been working on other events as well.
Talks are in progress with Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization which, according to rockthevote.org, has the mission “to support the tidal wave of young people who want to get involved in elections and seize the power of the youth vote to create political and social change,” and to educate students on the importance of voting in political elections, especially the upcoming American Presidential Election next November.
Student Senate meetings are held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays in room 310 in the Student Center. For exact days and more details visit www.emich.edu/studentgov.
