Student Senate for this fall has now assembled. The Cabinet is joined with four at-large members: Quinn Brenneke, Ana J. B. P. Mendes, Kristen Steiner, and Bethany Yoder, as well as campus club representatives. The group will be working through details of club funding next week.
Student Senate would like to introduce to the broader campus three issues that the Senate Cabinet has already been considering this year in order to begin conversation and hear feedback from students.
First, Senate is considering moving the opinion board to the hallway in the first floor Connector, near Java Junction. The union, where the board has been located in the past, is no longer the primary hub of student activity that it used to be. The opinion board may be used more if it were placed in the connector. However, it might be less accessible to commuter students and those living outside of the dorms. On the other hand, many upper-class students, commuters, and staff frequent Java Junction or travel through the Connector on various occasions. Senate would like to hear opinions from anyone concerned about or supportive of this idea soon. In conjunction with maintenance of the opinion board and its possible relocation, Senate will be posting guidelines for proper discourse for all who wish to post anything on the board.
Secondly, students and faculty have expressed the possible benefits of an optional cell phone number directory to student life. If this would be a helpful resource to students, the directory would likely be added to the existing online directory or constructed in a similar manner. All members of the campus community would have the choice to make their personal numbers public; this would not be mandatory.
The third issue is the use of the campus communicator for any type of announcement. There has been some degree of frustration with the ability of anyone to advertise or solicit freely in the communicator. If many other students and faculty or staff share this view of the communicator as being bothersome or ineffective and in need of some type of revision, changes could be made to address this.
Responses to these issues are not only welcomed, but essential as Senate helps the administration discern ways to improve student life. Please use the opinion board currently in the union, send an email to senate@goshen.edu, or speak directly to one of the Cabinet or at-large members of Senate. -By Luke Zehr, senate cabinet member
