Student Senate met on Monday night for their first meeting of the new semester. The agenda was light, with mostly housekeeping items discussed.

One initiative that was discussed was a goal relayed to the student senate from Patty Hartshorn, director of health and wellness, to make feminine hygiene products more readily available for students. The senate expressed a desire to assist her in this goal.

Other notes included a potential leadership skills workshop for the spring semester, a potential collaboration with CAC for a prom event and potential “flower grams” for Valentine’s Day.

One thing that did get finalized was a “Meet the Senate” initiative. This informal meet-and-greet style event will take place outside the dining hall on Monday, Jan. 20. Members of the senate will be at a table in the lobby of Westlawn, giving people a chance to meet them.

Additionally, Student Senate plans to join the Association of Student Athletes to meet with President Stoltzfus to discuss the plans for the funds raised in the Connect Goshen campaign.

“The athletic department student leaders … felt that there was very little student feedback,” said Javier Reyes, president of Student Senate. “They’d like to see if the administrators … would reconsider [some of their plans] and put the money towards some things that they believe would be beneficial for the department.”

It was also noted by Carmen Merino, vice president, that there is no student-athlete representation in Student Senate meetings, but Reyes discussed a plan to attend the ASA’s meeting on Monday mornings to help ensure that their needs were being met.

After the meeting, Reyes discussed his goals for the semester.

“We want to get a better reputation,” he said, “because a lot of people don’t really know what we do.”

He explained, “We do a lot of behind the scenes work, meeting with administrators and getting resources out to students.”

Reyes cited a meeting with Hartshorn last semester regarding the new health policies. They then worked to spread that information to the larger campus community.

Student Senate meetings are open to any GC student, and take place in SC006 from 6 – 7 p.m.