This past Friday, Valentine’s Day, was the deadline for 2014-15 applications for our Student Senate. The CPS turnout was weak! What is up with that?
I mean, there weren’t as many applications in general as I would have hoped, but since I became a part of SGA we have had a very small caucus in the College of Professional Studies. CPS, we need to remedy this. ASAP. After the new Senate is in session, after elections are over, we will accept applications again. You can become a senator mid-semester. I’d encourage you to do it. Please.
Just do it.
In a previous post, I’ve mentioned a lot about the UW-Stevens Point Student Government Association. It’s an organization comprised of students at this university. Through Wisconsin state statute 36.09(5), it’s also legitimized as a real actual part of governance on campus. This concept of shared governance means that students not only have a voice, but also a hand in what goes on here.
Going to school here makes you a stakeholder in this university. The things that happen here affect you. The perceptions and operations of this university the entire time you’re here (and afterward, for years!) affect you. When the administration does something, that thing
probably affects you, whether or not you’re aware of it.
Things don’t just happen here, they’re done. There are a ton of different projects and concepts being thought of and worked on and presented all day every day all year every year. Some of those become multi-million dollar buildings. Some of them become new university policies or laws, or degree programs even. Things at this university are in flux whether or not you’re looking. But it always comes back to you! You pay tuition, you may live here for a few years of your life, if you don’t commute. It’s your program that gets cut or expanded. It’s your right to smoke that you vote on in a referendum, and that stays or goes. It’s your student organization that asks for a budget, and they either get it or they don’t. It’s your student body that is impacted directly and indirectly by what this university does.
If that interests you, talk to SGA. Are you interested in where student money goes in the form of segregated fees? SGA does that. Join SUFAC, either as a senator or a student at large. You don’t have to be a senator to attend a committee or senate meeting, or to give feedback in any form.
Do you want to know more and have a say about student life and academic issues on campus? SGA does that! We have a director for it AND a committee for it, and that director and that committee do actual real things that impact the student body. So does our inclusivity director and his committee, and onward through all of our execs and all of their comittees.
We look at proposed projects and concepts that have the potential to change the face of the university and, by extension, the community, and whether we say yes or no makes a difference! How unreal is that? We can write legislation ourselves that becomes a serious dialogue in the university.
We allocate millions of dollars every year. SGA funds a lot of sweet stuff on campus. It’s a very involved group of individuals with a real interest in students having rights and a say here.
That’s why shared governance was my Valentine this year. It’s why I want to see that box in the SGA office overflowing with applicants from the CPS next semester. We are a core of professionals even before we graduate. We work hard and care deeply for our given fields, and the CPS has a tradition of students who are very engaged. SGA can serve us, and through SGA, we can serve ourselves and our university.
As an experience, it builds professionalism while allowing us to enrich this university. It is deeply rewarding, highly educational, extremely fun, and illuminating.