Student senate plans 'enjoyable' activities

By Natasha Waggoner
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

While many students know the power and responsibility of the cadet corps' chain of command, which governs the day-to-day life of NU cadets, few are aware of the responsibility held by the civilian governing body, the student senate, which, according to residence life officials, is meant to "mirror the corps structure in a political sense."

"We're a small group of students trying to make the school better and voice the students' opinions," said Josh Creighton, 19, a sophomore communications major from Scituate, Mass., who is also president of the NU student senate. "We want to find a way to get the students together and have a good time."

According to Creighton, the student senate is planning events to make the campus "more enjoyable."

"Right now, what we're trying to do is work on a concert," said Jason Chizmar, 21, a biology major from Springfield, VT, and Vice President of student senate. "That's our main drive this year."

One of the former projects of the student senate was the newspaper stands that are set up in the two civilian dorms.

"Last year, we got newspapers such as the The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Burlington Free Press put in the dorms," Chizmar said. "We also got lights put up by Crawford and behind Ainsworth."

They also work on safety concerns for campus residents, according to Creighton.

"We're working on other safety issues such as whistles for females and emergency phones down by the parking lot," Creighton said. "We're also trying to get cable in the dorms."

The senate has also taken on other issues such as preserving the lounge in Dodge Hall and helping with the illumination night, the stringing of Christmas lights around campus, according to Ara Banks, NU director of residence life and advisor of the student senate.

"I came in the summer of 1996, and at that time there was a very fragmented group of people that were struggling to put something together to call it a student senate," Banks said. "It's been really up and down since then; we've had a couple of strong years, and it depends on who the leaders are."

According to Banks, when the senate gets an idea, they present it to her and then go to the person in charge of that issue.

"Depending on what we want accomplished, we talk to different people," Creighton said. "For lights, we talked to facilities, and we mention things to Ara Banks to see what she would think, but we mostly talk to the top names that deal with what we want to do."

One problem the senate has is support from the students, according to Creighton.

"Right now, we don't have a lot of people involved," said Creighton. "We're pushing to get more involvement and support."

According to Chizmar, the goal in the near future would be to incorporate the corps into the program.

"Even though we're a civilian group, it would be great to get the corps' input on anything they would like to get done," Chizmar said.

Because the involvement of the student body is so low, elections are not held for senate positions, according to Banks. Students volunteer for the positions.

"I would like to see it be a total elective procedure with campus elections and class officers from every class," said Banks. "I would also like to see a mixture of corps and traditional civilians, as well as a representative of the commuter students, so that everyone is represented."

Creighton's main goals for this year are making the concert become a success, to see more people attend senate meetings and a lot more student involvement in student senate activities.

"The student senate is one of those groups that really isn't looked to by a lot of people," Creighton said. "They just throw it in the back as just a small group of civilians. I'd like to think of it as more of a way to get student opinions heard throughout campus, and I'd like to see more students involved, which is really tough to do."

"We're just a little group," Chizmar said. "But we want to get a lot done."

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