The student senate convened Wednesday night to review the functions of the eight other branches of student government andto prepare questions for a University Health Services (UHS) representative’s visit in March.
“Hopefully, these presentations [will give] you guys an idea of how you can stay involved in student government after this year,” student body vice president Becca Blais said.
Student Union Board (SUB) executive director Louis Bertolotti said SUB was divided into eight departments: AcoustiCafe, AnTostal, the collegiate jazz festival, concerts, festivities, ideas and issues, movies and special events. Three directors of programming moderate three of the departments each, he said.
“SUB is huge, so it can be easy to get lost in,” Bertolotti said. “We have over 100 members and the largest budget in the entire student union, so there’s a lot going on.”
Bertolotti said he encourages freshman to submit applications for next year’s SUB team.
Representatives from each of the class councils also shared with the senate the activities they had planned throughout the year for their classes.
“We have this budget and we can decide what to do with it,” Junior Class Council president Sara Dugan said. “ … As far as what juniors have been doing, a lot of our class is abroad, so there’s a lot of focus on keeping the community together. We’ve had letter-writing events and cookouts.”
Hall Presidents Council (HPC) co-chair Elizabeth Feeley said HPC mostly dealt with choosing the halls of the year.
“All of the work that we do with our presidents throughout the year focuses on developing programming and making sure they’re fostering great communities within their halls,” Feeley said.
Student body president Corey Robinson said the executive cabinet consisted of department directors who work to coordinate projects, set goals and discuss the needs of student body.
“Basically, what we do as student government, is we’re the mouthpiece to the administration,” Robinson said. “ … We take all that information [from all the departments, councils and boards] to the administration and we work with them. We’re the last frontier between the students and the administration.”
Senators also heard from representatives from the Student Union, Judicial Council, Club Coordination Council, Campus Life Council and Off-Campus Council.
Following the branch presentations, Flaherty Hall senator Jade Martinez addressed the senate regarding director of University Health Services Sharon McMullen’s visit to senate in March.
Senators made suggestions for questions to ask McMullen about STD testing on campus, cost differences between drop-in and scheduled appointments, RecSports training and payment and access to birth control on campus.
