Members of the Associated Student Body introduced a new bill, new student opinion forms and new faces as they held a formal senate meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 19, in the student union.
A main topic of conversation among senators was SB 23-9, which would clarify the selection process of Who’s Who honorees and Hall of Fame recipients.
Presented by Sen. Madison Waldrop, a sophomore integrated marketing communications major, the bill revises the code that defines the selection process and aims to make the selection criteria more transparent to students.
“The main goal of this legislation is to update the code to reflect the current process of Who’s Who and Hall of Fame selections,” Waldrop said. “Since ASB doesn’t have a direct hand in the process, it’s gotten easily outdated, so this will simply change the code to reflect what’s already going on. There’s nothing that’s being changed about the current process.”
ASB Vice President Mason Greenwald, a senior political science and economics major, also commented on the bill’s agenda.
“We want the code to accurately reflect what goes on, so students can have a strong grasp on how things happen,” Greenwald said. “We’d like transparency. And what we did tonight was just update the code to accurately reflect what actually happens.”
Annual Who’s Who and Hall of Fame nominations and selections currently are coordinated by the university’s division of student affairs.
The bill passed with a unanimous vote.
ASB saw several difficulties with implementation of the student opinion form last year, and with the form now being functional and present on social media, ASB aims to use it to the fullest to maximize student connection.
Greenwald emphasized that students’ opinions are a top priority this year.
“(Last year’s student opinion form problem) was egregious because that’s one of our direct lines of communication with students to fix issues, but it’s working now,” Greenwald said. “It’s on the (ASB) website, on the front page of the website on Instagram, and it’s getting used.”
Greenwald shared his hopes that students would begin turning to ASB to fix problems rather than using social media as an outlet.
“I want a cultural shift where no longer if you have a problem on campus, you open up Yik Yak or open up Twitter and start going crazy on what your problem is,” Greenwald said. “You can come to ASB because we’re here, and we work hard to fix student problems.”
In addition to Bill SB 23-9 and student complaints, the meeting included the inauguration of the new legislative aides, including Olivia Claire Williford, Emma Scruggs, Jack Turrentine, Kieffer Schwartz, Reid Overstreet, Shayne Carson, Adam Maatallah, Hannah Broders and Lillian Prather.
Each legislative aide is assigned as a secretary to standing committees, where they engage in research and development to gain more legislative experience and work closely with senators.
Freshman Hannah Broders, an international studies major, is one of the nine members inducted and is both excited and committed to fulfilling her role.
“As a freshman, it’s an amazing way to get involved in ASB, which I really wanted to do,” Broders said. “I honestly just hope to continue serving through ASB, and I can’t wait to see what will come from that.”
Greenwald believes the position can help first-time members feel more prepared for future senate opportunities.
“They learn how the senate works, and a lot of legislative aides end up becoming senators and growing in the legislative branch,” Greenwald said. “Some realize that ASB is not for them at all and switch out, but it’s an opportunity to work really closely with senators as a freshman and a first-year student and get a hang of the legislative branch.”
