Executive VP recaps Student Senate from the 2023-2024 school year

The last update of the year

Year in and year out many people wonder what the Student Senate is, and what they do. Because of the effectiveness that came from a bill from Senator Sally Tonkin, which standardized and mandated bi-weekly newsletters to be a part of the required jobs of the Student Senate, this has been less of a recent topic. However, I will still provide the last Student Senate update of the year and give a brief rundown of what we’ve accomplished.

The first and possibly largest update is the updated working hours that will go into effect next semester. The Student Senate brought forward a bill that increases the number of maximum hours students could work per week on campus, increasing the cap from 20 hours to 25 hours per week. However, compromises that led to contingencies within this bill. Freshmen will not be eligible because a good academic standing of a certain GPA must be obtained and maintained while working these extra hours. 

Senator Aubrey Benton brought a bill that redesigns course evaluations. The Student Senate understands that course evaluations changed recently, but they have created a more effective evaluation that can help students give more accurate and relevant feedback to the professor and administration. This will not take effect until next semester due to the timing of the bill going through the proper channels. 

The Student Senate also made some recommendations to the administration, sharing these during the meeting with President's Council on how the Senate can improve effective communication with the administration, and how to make Union into an overall better campus. 

To end the semester with the Student Senate, I want to acknowledge that I am incredibly happy and proud of all of the progress that we have made over the semester. While not everything is outlined in this update, I can honestly say that the Student Senate was incredibly effective this year. I wanted to thank each senator for working so hard this year, and making the campus they care for into a better place.

By Andrew Schwartz