The Student Senate began its 2004-2005 session with a new chair, goals to streamline efficiency and the hope that a larger population of students will recognize the organization.
According to Ezekiel Kimball, Senate chair, the Senate acts as a voice for undergraduate students on campus. If there’s something students have a problem with in terms of administrative policy, residential life-anything that relates to the University-it’s the Senate’s responsibility to take that concern to the University.
In addition to representing the concerns of undergraduate students, the Senate allocates the Student Activity Fee. “Last year, in a referendum, the undergraduate students voted to index the Student Activity Fee to inflation, a place it hasn’t been since 1997,” said Kimball. While the exact amount each student pays varies based on his or her individual course load, the average fee for a full-time student is $45 per semester, he explained.
Kimball notes that the Senate allocates this fee to such entities as The Free Press, WMPG, Words & Images, both the Portland and Gorham Events Boards, the Board of Student Organizations (BSO), Student Legal Services, Child Care Assistance Services and Gorham TV (GTV). “In addition, if a student needs money for a conference, or an activity they’re looking to sponsor on campus-and they’re not part of a standing student organization-the Senate has funds available for those people,” said Kimball.
Last year, the Senate sent students to a youth leadership conference in Australia and a Post-Modern English Studies conference in Bulgaria. One student was funded to present a paper on the mating habits of ground hogs at yet another conference. Kimball notes, “These were all serious pieces of academic work that these people were undergoing and we may not have necessarily understood them, but we support people in their endeavors.”
While the mating habits of ground hogs certainly merits attention, students have individually vocalized concerns that the senators themselves may not be conducting themselves as studiously as they could when they attend their leadership conferences.
In a blind survey conducted last Spring by this writer and John Marshall, the 2003-2004 Senate treasurer and The Free Press advertising manager, one student wrote, “Student organizations, trips, functions, sending senators on waste-less trips when all they talk about when they get back is how drunk they got.” The survey asked general questions about what students thought the Senate was about.
Senate Chair Ezekiel Kimball, responded to the criticism saying, “First, the conduct of past Senates is reflective upon the current Senate, but it is not what the present Senate is. Knowing some of the senators who have gone to leadership conferences in the past, the Senate and the student body did derive considerable benefit from at least some of their experiences.”
While some students may be familiar with the Senate through one of the sub-organizations the Senate funds, Senate leaders are concerned that the organization is not as well recognized by students as it could be. According to Senate Vice-Chair Andrew Bossie, “We’re not as visible as some of us would like to be. We do a lot. We’re dealing with over a million dollars’ worth of money that is going back to the students and yet, people still don’t recognize the Senate name. I don’t think we’re as present as we could be.”
In addition to improving the visibility and image of the Senate, Kimball outlined for The Free Press three goals he hopes the Senate will support him in moving forward this year. “The major thing, for me at least,” Kimball said, “is we need a student body president.”
According to Kimball, the Senate chair is required to be impartial, having no opinion during Senate meetings. When speaking to administrative officials, however, they are required to represent the opinion of the students. “At the same time, I’m supposed to have the strongest opinion and the least opinion of anybody on the Senate,” he said. His vision is that the student body president would represent student’s issues to the administration, freeing the Senate chair to remain impartial during Senate meetings.
A second goal of his is to add graduate students to the Senate. According to Kimball, the Senate currently represents undergraduate students, leaving those graduate students paying a Student Activity Fee un-represented on both the Senate and in campus activities. According to Kimball, a small but vocal group of graduate students has been voicing their concern over this lack of representation.
Kimball’s third goal is to split the Student Communications Board (SCB) off from the Senate. The SCB, funded entirely by the Senate, consists of WMPG and The Free Press. Kimball believes that despite the reality of the editorial freedom of The Free Press and WMPG, the financial relationship that exists between them and the Senate could make it appear that the editorial freedom has been compromised. Separating student media from the Senate could mitigate that appearance and eliminate the potential for a future conflict of interest.
Currently, three seats remain open. According to Kimball, students can become a senator either through the general election or through an appointments process. There is an option for a special election, however it’s rarely used. The three open seats will likely be filled through the appointments process. To be considered, students should submit an application to the Appointments Committee who will review the application and make recommendations to the Senate. Upon reviewing the recommendations, the Senate will vote either to appoint the student as a Senator, or not.
The Senate meets every Friday at 2 p.m., unless there is a meeting of the Board of Student Organizations. On BSO meeting days, the Student Senate meetings begin at 11 a.m.. USM students are encouraged to attend Senate meetings, “Ideally, we would like to see this room filled with people,” said Bossie.