BY JEFF DAVIDSON

In print | Published March 3, 2011

Student Council is actively gauging opinion on the idea of forming a student forum. The forum would provide a space for students and student groups to voice their concerns in a collective body.

President of StuCo Simon Zhu ’11 began thinking about the idea of a student forum last semester.

Dean of Students Liz Braun told him of Mount Holyoke’s student senate and he thought it seemed like something that would work well here. “Right now the basic idea is to create some sort of forum that allows us to get in touch with students more, to have better communication,” Zhu said. “It would not be replacing surveys, but enhancing, augmenting our communication.”

Then this semester Vice President of StuCo Olivia Ensign ’12 expanded the idea to include the RAs, SAMs and other student groups. On Sunday night they began soliciting opinions from student groups and administrators. So far, according to Ensign and Zhu, the response has been positive.

“At this point we’re just trying to do outreach,” Ensign said. “… The next stage would be discussion as to what students want this to look like. It’s not just what Student Council wants it to look like.”

The goal of the forum, as Zhu sees it, is “to reach out and include as many people as possible.”

Ensign says that having a wide range of opinion in the forum is essential. She sees the forum as “another avenue of communication. The more communication there is between groups, and between groups and the administration, the more transparency there is.”

StuCo is not limiting who this is open to at the moment. If the forum is formed eventually decisions will be made about the make-up of the body, but for the time being anyone can be involved in the discussions. So far StuCo has reached out to various student organizations across campus, RAs, SAMs, athletic groups, and others.

Zhu and Ensign specifically see the RAs as an important part of this discussion. According to Zhu, RAs “hold leadership on campus, they know what’s going on in hall lives, they’re talking with their residents. They are a focal point.”

A forum also means opening up potential leadership opportunities. It would provide groups and students with the opportunity to serve in a position with a close line of communication to the administration.

But again, nothing formal about the student forum has been created yet. And according to Zhu, “it’s such a considerable undertaking to institute a senate as a body that meets regularly that we might explore different avenues.” For now it is being formed step by step. Discussions will continue throughout the semester.

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