Baker University Student Senate announced newly elected class officers Tuesday, but the freshman class is the only class that has filled all positions and has access to its class budget. (Story continued below.)
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President Kim Kilmartin said the first few meetings will consist of members learning their roles and finding people to fill available positions.
“We have the officers, but a lot of them are new,” she said. “So the first couple meetings will be learning their responsibilities.”
Kilmartin said each class is required to have five representatives in order to have access to its budget, which classes use to fulfill one social activity and one community service activity per semester. As of Tuesday, the freshman class was the only class to fill the position of president, vice president, secretary/treasurer and two class representative positions. She said the responsibility of filling the vacant positions will most likely fall to the class presidents.
Kilmartin said the senior class only has the president’s position filled.
“We need to fill senior offices, otherwise the seniors don’t get any money and if they don’t get any money that means there will be no pub crawl,” she said. “I know it’s a huge benefit for seniors and it might not happen if they don’t step up to participate.”
Senior Class President Brittany Coleman said she would like the senior class to make its presence known on campus.
“It’s the 150th anniversary, and that in itself is special, but I want the senior class to really stand out as leaders both in the community and here on Baker’s campus,” she said.
Coleman said she’d also like to see student senate stand out as an important organization among students.
“We want as much involvement as possible,” she said. “Even if people don’t want to have the time commitment of being a full-time member, we are definitely interested in people coming kind of sporadically and always offering up ideas and opinions.”
Junior Class President Taylor Glessner said she would like students to voice their opinions on class activities and community projects they find appealing so there is more interest and participation.
“My main goal is to try to get a lot of ideas from the students on what they want to do with that because last year I didn’t really hear about a lot of the activities,” she said. “Student senate is really trying to get its name out there a lot more this year and I’m really excited to be a part of that.”
Freshman Class President Will Duncan said one of his objectives for the year is to influence the freshman class to take advantage of class projects and campus activities.
“I was hoping to come up with something fun that everyone will want to do and hopefully get more interaction than I’ve heard we’ve had in the past,” he said.
Kilmartin said senate is working on various projects including working with Student Activities Council on a spring concert, as well as with Director of Student Health Services Ruth Sarna, who is the representative from student development in charge activities relating to the Habitat for Humanity house being built in Baldwin City in conjunction with the 150th anniversary. Senate is also discussing with University President Pat Long the idea of a sesquicentennial gate that may become a gift from the class of 2008
“The Habitat for Humanity house and the class gate are the two main activities we need to get working on,” Kilmartin said. “Pat Long also wants senate’s input on the new dorm and students’ issues with the new dorm. So that will be something we deal with too.”
Student senate meets at 8 p.m. every Tuesday in Mabee 400 and is open to any interested students.
“Senate is always an open meeting so students are more than welcome to come and voice their opinions at any time,” Kilmartin said.