The Student Senate has met twice since the most recent issue of The Record, meeting on Jan. 23 and 27. 

A motion was passed to reduce the frequency of senate meetings to biweekly. Student Senate President Javier Reyes cited a lack of agenda items and a desire to “lower [the Senate’s] stress and time commitment to being [at meetings] in person.” The motion passed 5-0. 

A concern was raised during the meeting on Jan. 23 about the state of some of the washers and dryers in laundry rooms across campus. The concern had come through the grapevine and was not raised by a student attendee. Senate leaders said the best course is to use the information provided in the rooms and report the issues so that they can be fixed. This happened three days before the dryer fire in the KMY laundry room, though the concern was unrelated and would not have necessarily prevented the incident. 

Other event ideas were proposed over the course of the two meetings. A collaboration with BSU is still on the table, though at the time of the meeting, was pending an email reply. The tentative plan is to do an open mic night. 

Plans for a leadership skills training session are in the works, a meeting with Career Networks will take place on Feb. 13 to work on planning the event.

The Senate plans to hold a cookie decorating event on Valentine’s Day in collaboration with the Commuter Student Association.

Discussions of a “meet the candidates” style event at Academic Symposium were tabled on Jan. 27 — the senate is waiting on more information before deciding how to proceed. 

The dryer fire came up at the meeting on Jan. 27, the senate noted the inconvenience of students being unable to use a major laundry room and discussed pressing staff members to ensure that dryers are kept to a safe standard. 

Finally, senate is promoting the Latino student support group, which will begin meetings on Feb. 7 in the Academic Success Center conference room. The support group will meet weekly on Fridays at 10 a.m.

The meetings are open to all students on campus, including allies, as all are affected by the political climate. 

The next Student Senate meeting will be Feb. 10 from 6 – 7- p.m. in WL103, the community room across from the entrance to the dining hall. Student Senate meetings are open to all GC students.