The last Student Senate meeting of the semester began at 6:01 p.m. on Monday, Dec 8 in the Dakota Ballroom in Davies Student Center.
Communications Commission Director Cole Morehouse started the meeting with a presentation on communications outreach and changes that were made at the beginning of the semester. Morehouse shared statistics regarding social media, open forum, Motivational Mondays and the Student Sentinel.
Morehouse said the time and location for Motivational Mondays has changed. It moved from the original space in front of Davies Center to the fountain on the lower campus.
Senator Victoria Czap asked if the time change affected the number of students attending Motivational Mondays. Morehouse said the change has shown a positive impact on student attendance.
Next, President Kaitlyn Hevrin and Vice President Zachary Cardille gave their reports. They bid farewell to the three senate members who would be resigned that night — Senator Kyra Price, Senator Evan Frawley and Morehouse — as well as Senator James Verville, who will be leaving to study abroad.
Senator John Dunlap, the Finance Commission intern, reintroduced bill 69-B-6, amending the senate bylaws to include at least two non-senator students on every commission, excluding the Communications Commission and the University Activities Commission (UAC).
The bill was introduced at last week’s meeting on Dec. 1, and voting took place at the Dec. 8 meeting.
“Currently, the bylaws include very minimal requirements for non-senator students on commissions,” Dunlap said. “To address this inconsistency, the proposed amendments establish a standard of at least two non-senator students on every commission, except for Communications Commissions and University Activities Commissions.”
Dunlap said that this bill will also promote greater accountability, shared ownership and dynamic discussion within commissions, as well as ensure that students are more directly involved in decision-making processes.
Senator Max Moffit asked if the senate had any bylaws like this amendment in the past. Morehouse said they had existed previously but were removed during the 67th session.
The senate moved to the speaker’s list to discuss the bill. During this time, members discussed the bill’s exclusion of UAC and the Communications Commission. Senators shared conflicting opinions.
“I personally believe that having students on these commissions is one of the most important things we can do,” Senator Aidan Vollmer said. “We’re the voice of the student body but make up to 1% of the student body.”
Vollmer said he wouldn’t be able to vote up this bill without an amendment to include the two commissions.
Academic Affairs Director Siena Emerson proposed this amendment, then the senate went to a speaker’s list
“I believe that student voices are valuable in every conversation that we have, including internal ones,” Senator Sam Stumo said.
Stumo said the senate has received criticism that this bylaw amendment could rectify.
“This change addresses two of the biggest criticisms of the senate that we’ve seen in open forum,” Stumo said. “One, our lack of outreach. Two, perceived cliquiness … It removes the barriers to entry for student voices. I was going to give this a thumbs up before the amendment, but now I give it two.”
Morehouse said he is concerned about including UAC and Communications Commission in the bill.
“Getting students involved in general is great. But operationally, this has not made sense,” Morehouse said. “I’ve had two commission members who were not senators attend our commission meetings and just be confused the whole time. As stated by them: ‘It does not make sense for me to be here.’”
The amendment to line 13 and 14 of 69-B-6 to include UAC and the Communications Commission passed with a vote of 24-10-2.
The senate moved to a speaker’s list on the amended bill then moved to a vote where the bill passed with a vote of 33-0-2.
There was also a resolution on the table, 69-R-11: In Support of Hot Water Dispensers in Davies Center. This resolution was tabled and will be voted on at the next meeting on Jan. 26 after winter break.
After a five-minute recess, the senate moved on to Communications Commission director candidate presentation. Hevrin and Cardille nominated Senator Audrey Curtler for the position.
Curtler took the stand to give a brief presentation on why she should be appointed.
Curtler first joined the senate in October 2024 and spent the following spring semester as an intern for the Student Organizations Commission (SOC). She was hired as the Communications Commission intern in May.
Curtler said her goals as Communications Commission director are to:
- “Rewrite pieces of the communications bylaws to best represent its goals as they exist today.”
- “To grow the student senate TikTok page to reach a new audience. On Instagram and Facebook, a large portion of our followers are alumni, families of students and prospective students. If we grow our TikTok, we’re more likely to reach students who go here.”
- “Working with university marketing to change our website. Currently, Student Senate has two websites … I’ve met with the university web manager and created a game plan for consolidating our pages as much as possible.”
- “Create a resource form for directors and commissions. This form would be for directors to utilize if they ever want help from commissions.”
- “The last big initiative that I’d like to begin soon is a campus town hall event. This event would be held one or two times a semester and be cohosted by the communications director and intern and the chancellor and dean of students.”
The senate entered a five-minute question period for members to ask the candidate about her proposed initiatives.
Frawley asked Curtler how she would handle events on campus that may be emotionally or politically charged.
Frawley said, “I’m just curious on how you might work through those challenging conversations that both represent senate in a good way and please students and administration.”
Curtler said that it’s very hard to find a middle ground that’s going to please the administration and also please students.
“I truly believe that it is our job as representatives of the student body that we do not pick a side in situations like that,” Curtler said. “If it’s a controversial situation like that, there are always going to be students that — if we were to stick up for certain students — will feel like they don’t have a senate that represents them accurately.”
The senate went into closed session to deliberate, and then Curtler was appointed as the Communications Commission director.
Morehouse was resigned from his directorship, and Price, Frawley and Verville were resigned from their senator positions.
The senate adjourned at 8:11 p.m. and will reconvene on Jan. 26 in the Dakota Ballroom.
Agbara can be reached at [email protected].
