The Student Senate began operating under a new framework at their last meeting, focusing on achievable, tangible goals for the semester and more effective use of meeting time.
The new framework was developed at a retreat held last weekend. Senators in attendance began by coming up with a short list of goals for the rest their terms.
They also spent time talking about a new way to operate as a body—starting from the perspective of creating a whole new procedure—to more efficiently achieve their goals.
“We did a lot of great things last semester, accomplished quite a bit,” said Grand Marshal Chris Mather. “The way that we were operating wasn’t working the way that it needed to.”
At their meeting on Monday, the Senate narrowed their projects into the five that they saw as most important and that attracted sufficient interest—generating student interest in sports; letting the accused know of their rights; creating a first-year student guide; creating an online system to discuss classes, professors, and workload of courses; and a Senate-sponsored bonfire.
Turning away from the existing committee structure, the Senators divided themselves into groups to take on each of the projects, with each senator committing to only one project.
“I like it,” said Class of 2004 Senator Leslie Granger, who was selected to lead the bonfire group. “It stops you from being thrown into a group or a committee you don’t want to be on.”
In addition to the new group structure, Mather intends to streamline Senate meetings by focusing on getting work done.
“The most important thing that came out of this was valuing people’s time,” he said.
Reports from other student government bodies that the Senators represented, which were regularly delivered at each meeting as a matter of ceremony but which often lacked substance, will now be submitted to the GM in written form and distributed to the Senate as necessary. If one of these groups requires time to speak to the Senate, they will be given time in the agenda, as Mather stresses this new framework is something to work within but is not rigid.
Instead of these reports, the Senate meetings will focus on the progress of the project groups. The Senate will hear some new business—mostly as a way to bring up items to be dealt with in the future—and then take questions from the audience.
After this part of the meeting—which Mather hopes will take significantly less time than past meetings—the Senate will break into its groups and spend the rest of their meeting time working on the projects they’ve taken on.
“I can’t imagine a better way to value people’s time,” Mather said.
While the Senate’s five new projects will take the forefront at meetings, Mather also wants to foster the individual interests of the Senators.
“If you have something you want to do, I want to help you do it,” he told the Senators, adding that those interested in taking on such projects should talk to him outside the Senate’s regular meeting time.
The new structure was received positively by Senators.
“It’s an interesting experiment,” said Class of 2005 Senator Mike Dillon, leader of the sports interest group. “I’d like to see it work.”
Jonathan Cone, senator for the class of 2003, said he likes the projects the Senate has chosen. “They all have very visible and tangible results,” he said.
“I think it’s important to have the whole senate work on a few projects rather than everyone half-heartedly working on their own,” said Class of 2004 Senator Anna Batorsky.
In the next week, each of the project groups will create a “kickoff document,” which will define exactly what the group plans to do and the broad steps of how they will do it. These documents will be reviewed by the Senate and, if they earn the signature of every senator, will stand as a directive that the group should go ahead with the outline plan.
