Alestleview: Student Government needs more senators
Alestle Editorial Board
Issue date: 2/9/10 Section: Opinion
Student Government is elected by the student body to take care of questions and issues for everyone on campus.
Its job is to take campus life and make it better, approve travel and program requests from organizations across campus and be the voice of the students, among other things.
But it would be helpful if Student Government made room for more senators to help make sure the campus has a better representation of the students. Having only 12 people to represent about 14,000 students is not enough. And, if there were more senators, it would not hurt Student Government as much when a senator quits or is unable to fulfill his or her duties.
There should be enough student senators to represent each of the residence halls and schools in the university. It would be like representing a constituency. The number of senators should go up or down depending on the population of each residence hall or school. For example, for every 400 students in a residence hall, there would be one senator to represent them. So, on average, there would be about two senators for each dorm.
This would help make ensure there would be a better representation of the student population. If there were more senators to help cover the campus and each of them had a direct number of people they were representing, then they would not have to have as many committees to attend and would have more time to talk with students.
If each residence hall had a senator to represent its residents, they would have someone they could go directly to if there was a problem. Also, if there was a senator representing the School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Nursing, etc., then students may also take more of an interest in what is happening on their campus because there would be a direct line to representatives that can make their concerns known.
St. Louis University has this sort of government established. They have a senator to represent each of the segments of their university. With a smaller population of students than SIUE, they have 57 senators. It can be done.
Worries that might arise with this change include dual representation. Someone representing Bluff Hall might also be a nursing student. However, from the SLU example, the senator is responsible for representing their dorm, not their major. Regardless, simply having more senators would represent more types of students.
There would be no extra cost to the school since senators are not paid to sit on Student Government as well. Also, it would be more likely that they would be more interested in Student Government since people like to see their own departmental interests represented.
Understandably, it will take time to implement a system like this. There would have to be a vote and a change to the constitution. But with the growing number of students who are now choosing SIUE, there should also be a growing number of senators to make sure each student's campus experience is the best it can be.
Its job is to take campus life and make it better, approve travel and program requests from organizations across campus and be the voice of the students, among other things.
But it would be helpful if Student Government made room for more senators to help make sure the campus has a better representation of the students. Having only 12 people to represent about 14,000 students is not enough. And, if there were more senators, it would not hurt Student Government as much when a senator quits or is unable to fulfill his or her duties.
There should be enough student senators to represent each of the residence halls and schools in the university. It would be like representing a constituency. The number of senators should go up or down depending on the population of each residence hall or school. For example, for every 400 students in a residence hall, there would be one senator to represent them. So, on average, there would be about two senators for each dorm.
This would help make ensure there would be a better representation of the student population. If there were more senators to help cover the campus and each of them had a direct number of people they were representing, then they would not have to have as many committees to attend and would have more time to talk with students.
If each residence hall had a senator to represent its residents, they would have someone they could go directly to if there was a problem. Also, if there was a senator representing the School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Nursing, etc., then students may also take more of an interest in what is happening on their campus because there would be a direct line to representatives that can make their concerns known.
St. Louis University has this sort of government established. They have a senator to represent each of the segments of their university. With a smaller population of students than SIUE, they have 57 senators. It can be done.
Worries that might arise with this change include dual representation. Someone representing Bluff Hall might also be a nursing student. However, from the SLU example, the senator is responsible for representing their dorm, not their major. Regardless, simply having more senators would represent more types of students.
There would be no extra cost to the school since senators are not paid to sit on Student Government as well. Also, it would be more likely that they would be more interested in Student Government since people like to see their own departmental interests represented.
Understandably, it will take time to implement a system like this. There would have to be a vote and a change to the constitution. But with the growing number of students who are now choosing SIUE, there should also be a growing number of senators to make sure each student's campus experience is the best it can be.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Ryan Louis
posted 2/09/10 @ 10:11 AM CST
I see the point of this article, but I completely disagree. A normal politicians job is to represent thousands of opinions. Look at how many people a House of Representatives, Senators, or any other politician has to represent. (Continued…)
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