The Senate held their second meeting Wednesday, Oct. 3, and the Senate’s committees proposed many potential programs. The committees are given a certain amount of funds taken from the student activity fees, which they use to accomplish certain goals of the Senate. The most notable project ideas proposed by the committees this week are:
• The Judicial Committee, chaired by Senator Rose Foley, suggested new Best Practice Guidelines for clubs attempting to get Student Government Union (SGU) recognized. These guidelines are still a work in progress and are not absolute requirements for club recognition. However, they are preferred by the senators to be done before attempting to be acknowledged because it shows that a club is serious about being recognized. The guidelines will resemble the standards that recognized clubs must follow to be in good standing.
“I feel like last year when clubs would come in to be SGU recognized we would spend [too much time]talking about [the potential club’s recognition]. We created these guidelines in order to be more efficient with our senate meetings and to be more efficient with the clubs getting SGU recognized,” said Foley.
Foley also said that having Best Practice Guidelines would make it easier to decide which clubs to acknowledge because the guidelines would make the recognition process more objective.
• The Sophomore Committee, also chaired by Senator Rose Foley, proposed to have a new scholarship. The potential scholarship will be available to students of sophomore standing who are trying to take on leadership roles in their community. Foley believes that this will provide sophomores an opportunity to grow as leaders.
• The Research and Marketing Committee, chaired by Romario Williams, communicated with Career Services to see if more jobs and internships could be added to Handshake, Saint Leo University’s platform to connect students with potential employers.
• The Philanthropy Committee, chaired by Lisa Ogueke, proposed having a Thanksgiving food drive and an event called a box party. It would be an event where students would help fill boxes with school supplies; these school supplies would be sent to students in other countries.
• The Activities Committee, chaired by Senator Christina VanDerElst, discussed some of their potential plans for themes and activities to be held during the week of Homecoming.
• The Environmental Committee, which has not elected a chair yet, proposed celebrating Earth Day this year. They also intend to help with recycling after it has been implemented.
• The Senior Committee, chaired by Romario Williams, plans to spend most of its funding on Senior Week. This event is historically where the Senior Committee spends the majority of its funds.
