Newest turnover could affect Student Senate

Speaker must appoint 8 senators

By: Bob Bajek / Student Government Editor

Posted: 1/12/09

As students adapt to a new semester, the Student Senate will have to adapt to the large turnover that happened last month.

Student Senate member Isaac Sandidge, who was the Student Senate speaker in the fall, said the turnover was the biggest one he has seen in the four years he has been on the senate.

Only 17 students ran for 25 open seats. Nine of them were up for re-election.

With eight new senate members elected and eight who will be appointed, Sandidge thinks inexperience will come into play. The former speaker said "rookies" will not speak up as much in the meetings or share their ideas in discussions.

Some of the challenges Sandidge acknowledged for the spring senate will be the continuity in the committees.

"With the big turnover, it's hard to get things done with people leaving the committees," Sandidge said. "The veterans have to step up."

As speaker, Sandidge said one of his goals was to foster teamwork. However, he ran into opposition from the senators on idealogical issues.

One example was the proposed expansion of required office hours from two to four hours a week. The proposed bylaw change failed in a 17-9 vote on Oct. 29.

"I appointed strong-minded people," Sandidge said. "I wanted to build a senate of wolves instead of the sheep that has been there for the last few years, but it is kind of biting me now."

Sandidge said as a senator, he will be more active in committee work and expressing his opinions again since, as speaker, he could not interject his opinion as he led the meeting.

Current Student Senate Speaker Drew Griffin knows first hand the test of getting new members. In the spring election, he ran against five others for five seats and lost. Griffin fought for a fall appointment and gained it.

"In my speech (when I was appointed as Student Senate Speaker), I described how all five of the senators are currently not on the senate and how three left before the year started," Griffin said. "I wanted to be appointed and serve the students."

"The problem with students leaving the senate is a time-management issue," he said. "It is something that I will stress to the appointed senators so they understand what they are getting into."

Griffin said there are four at-large appointments, three off-campus and one on-campus appointment left. At-large appointments can be either on- or off-campus.

To fill these positions, Griffin said he will use advertising in The Daily Eastern News and faculty newsletter to spread the word of the eight open seats.

He also said he will e-mail the department chairs to pass the word of the available senate seats for faculty to relay to their classes. The speaker also wants to use the EIU Events e-mail.

Griffin said applications would be sent to interested students. They would have to write a personal statement on why they want to be on the senate and then schedule a one-on-one interview with Griffin.

The last step is approval by the senate on the consent agenda at a student senate meeting.

The speaker hopes to fill in the positions soon but said he will not fill the seats arbitrarily.

"If there are only five (qualified) people, I will go with five," Griffin said.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7942 or at rtbajek@eiu.edu.