On the second to last week of this year’s ASLC cabinet, senators and elected members look to the future, which included proposing and implementing changes.

Vice President Elect AnnaMarie Motis proposed that next semester sees the beginnings of a complete remodel of the ASLC senate.

Currently, the senate is comprised of a set number of senators representing each class and every class gets equal representation. Motis proposed that next semester’s senators vote on redoing this distribution.

She suggested that the future senate be comprised of 20 seats from five different campus organizations. The organizations would be: six seats for academics, four seats for Greek Life, two for Residence Life, four for athletics, and four for ASLC clubs.

The academics seats would be broken into the six major areas of academic interests. Those areas are Arts, Business, English Humanities, Science, and Social Sciences. There would still be an application process to fill each of these seats, but the process will be aimed at students already involved in that organization. Those students would then be in charge of communicating what occured in ASLC with the rest of their community.  

Motis said that her reasoning behind this proposal was that during her campaign for VP, she heard many students say that they do not feel as if they know who represents them on ASLC or what ASLC does.

She also said that due to the evolving nature of higher education, many students are not on campus for the typical four-year experience; some enter as juniors or graduate after five years. Because of this, Motis said that students may not feel particularly attached to their graduating class. This new system would not be voted on until November 2018.

On the April 17 senate meeting when Motis announced her proposed change, she opened the floor to any suggestions or criticisms from the present senators.

Many senators were concerned about certain aspects of the proposal. The breakdown of which organizations got more seats was greatly contested. The point that organizations like Greek Life, Residence Life and athletics are already well supported was brought up.

Senators also stated that ASLC was not pursuing alternative routes before committing to a complete overhaul of the structure of senate. One of the routes that was most frequently brought up was that ASLC could utilize their publicity more to make students more aware of who their senators are.

In addition to Motis’ proposal the ASLC 2018-2019 cabinet was ratified unanimously. The following is the new ASLC cabinet:

VP of Programming…………………Asa Richerson

VP of Business and Finance……..Tyler Kelsch

Secretary………………………………..Abby Hoppe

Club Director………………………….Jake Olson

Sports Director……………………….Michayla Sponsel

Publicity Director……………………Mariza Rayfield

Student Center Director…………..Justin Meyer