I love this time of year. The leaves are changing. The newness of the school year has worn off and everyone is sinking into their new routines. I also love this time of year because it is the time when you see Student Senate get into full swing! We had our second general Student Senate meeting of the year and can I just say that I am impressed with it! Every Senator had something to report and progress was made on projects.

One of the themes of the meeting this week involved student organizations. Many first year and transfer students are finding it difficult to find the information they need to get involved. We also had a discussion about advertising events. After moving from being a FYEM-LO in a residence hall to an off-campus apartment, I have realized that I feel like I am not aware of as many events taking place on campus. During the discussion at the meeting, I found out that I was not the only one feeling this pain. One of the possible reasons for this phenomenon, as Darrah Hulva pointed out, is the fact that not as many students who live in the Woods or off-campus go into RTUC as much where most events are advertised.

We also voted on some changes to our by-laws. One of the changes involves the Inclusivity Senator starting next year. Instead of having the Inclusivity Senator, the position will become the Multicultural Student Council Senator, working in conjunction with MSC to help form a better partnership. Also, another by-law change was that in order to run for Executive Board, a person must have either previously served on Student Senate or must attend 25%, or roughly 4, Student Senate meetings. This amendment, proposed by Kara Anderson, was pursuant to concerns about people entering Executive Board positions without any previous knowledge or understanding about Student Senate. At the same time, the 25% option was added so that way if someone is passionate about running for Executive Board, they still have that opportunity.

A third point of the night was concerned with the possibility of conducting a Student Services survey. We have been approached by faculty members about this, wanting to hear what students think of certain services on campus such as the Student Service Center and the Registrar.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to Chef Brian! Last night while I was in the cafeteria I saw how he took student feedback and actually made changes based on this feedback. Way to go Chef!