Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
The Swarthmore Student Senate—comprised of elected representatives, committee representatives, and student council members—met for the first time on Thursday evening. Student Council Co-Presidents Gabriella Capone ’14 and Victor Brady ’13 managed the meeting’s agenda.
The session started with introductions from the Senate body and an overview of the short-term and long-term goals of the agenda, which cover a variety of subjects ranging from working groups to the relationship between the Student Senate and Student Council.
The Senate body then broke off into their chosen working groups, each of which will research and discuss specific topics, eventually creating proposals for improvements. This semester’s working group topics include dining services, ITS, student activities, and Senate logistics, which will be in charge of creating the rules for the Senate.
The dining services working group will look at the work being done by the food consultant who has been observing the school’s dining services this week. The ITS group will work closely with Chief Technology Officer Joel Cooper in looking at the future of ITS in the context of the campus master plan. The student activities group will examine the role of the student activities coordinator position and the efficiency of campus activities and events from Paces Cafe to LSE. The senate logistics groups will act as the “law and order” of the Senate and manage the proposals presented by legislators and any logistical changes that have to be made.
“We need a group that is going to be introspective and that looks at the long-term goals of the Senate,” Capone said. “This group will formalize what we are going to cover as well as look at similar student government organizations in other colleges have been doing and what would work for Swarthmore.”
Liaison leaders were elected in each working group, who will be in contact with Student Council throughout the rest of the semester.
According to Brady, the working groups will meet outside of senate meeting times. Senate sessions will only focus on listening to individual proposals and voting on legislation.
Nominations for Student Senate’s notetaker, scribe, and speaker positions will be presented at the next senate meeting.
“The notetaker will be in charged of taking notes of the meeting and the Senate speaker will help coordinate when people are speaking and presenting legislations or resolutions,” said Brady.