Every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m., the Ashland University Student Senate meets in the ABCD conference room on the second floor of the Hawkins-Conard Student Center. This academic year, the President is, former CFA representative and Finance and Facilities Senator, Zachary Scher.  

“We are elected by the student body, so we are direct representatives of the student body,” said Scher on the topic of how the student senate voices concerns of AU students. “Students are always welcome to come in and we have open sessions during our meetings where students are allowed to speak and voice their own issues. . . We are always open to student input and feedback.” 

Alena Aguayo, Executive Vice President, mentioned certain ways the Student Senate approaches concerns on campus.  

“We do multiple things,” said Aguayo “We could either talk with our advisor, Dr. Pool, who’s the Vice President of Student Affairs, and he can try to give us an answer to help us out, or we could advocate to the administration, or we could draft up resolutions which are sort of amendments at Ashland University.” 

Student Senate meetings have a specific schedule. The senate begins with reports done by each senator, who each meet with different department heads and administration weekly or biweekly to become more informed on certain areas on campus.  

Their reports are filled with updates on their meetings and any concerns. Next, each class representative gives a report on what they are working on.  

Then, comes the time to address any resolutions that need to be discussed, if any. Near the end of the meeting, the senate opens the meeting for any general concerns which are any comments or questions that don’t fit into another section of the meeting. This portion is the only time for the public members to raise any concerns to the Senate. After this, the senate’s last part is announcements, followed by the meeting’s closing.  

“I’m incredibly excited for senate this year. I think we have a great group of people that are already established in Senate. We have upcoming elections in September for all our open positions,” said Scher, “We currently have 12 out of 30 positions filled and we are always open to new people. Our theme going into this year is involvement.” 

More information about AU Student Senate can be found at https://ausenate.wixsite.com/ssau .