College senate is where members of your college's community comes together once a week to discuss students concerns, reveal happenings on campus, and implement any new rules. It can be the best part of your week, like mine is. If you haven't gone to Senate, here's my argument on why you should stop what you're doing and go.
1. You know everything before anyone who doesn’t attend
At Senate is usually the time when organizations and clubs on campus reveal events planned or opportunities to work on their staff. It was at Senate that the Sadie Hollins (the Hollins University version of Sadie Hawkins) dance was first announced as well as the opportunity to become an assistant editor for Cargoes. At one Senate, a faculty member in the crowd announced she would sponsor two Olympiad teams on a first come, first serve basis. Thanks to her, my friends and I were able to participate in such a fun activity.
2. College students are running it
You get to voice your concerns to peers. It can be a bit intimidating to do this with faculty or staff. These are people who understand the struggles and odd things that go on in day-to-day life that other people just can’t. Of course, there is one, maybe two faculty members in the audience to help answer questions that your peers cannot, but they don’t run the show. Thanks to Patty O’Toole at Hollins University for always being super awesome and helpful.
3. Everyone is so helpful
No question is a stupid question. Everyone at Senate gets that, and they are more than willing to give points of information. We’re all students here and we all have to come together to make our time here as smooth as possible. We already have midterms, finals, group projects, 50 annotated bibliographies, and multiple page papers to juggle in four class, at minimum. No one is going to purposely make your time at college harder than it already is, especially not fellow students.
4. So many fun things happen
Ranging from singing ‘happy birthday’ to our Senate Vice-Chair to the Senior Class President asking the Sophomore Class President to the Sadie Hollins dance during announcements, Senate is so unpredictable and super fun. New traditions and events become official at Senate. There is a new Halloween tradition called Booing, where students anonymously boo each other with bags of candy to promote community, fun, and Halloween spirit.
5. SO MANY BLOOPERS
Senate is not practiced ahead of time and it’s all in real time so you get to catch all the tripping up the stairs, missing a step or two, tripping over other various items, and so many cursing slip ups. There have been so many slips up and jumbling of words. It wouldn’t be Senate if there was some kind if tongue twisting going on. Senate could not be more real and funny, and I love it.
If you haven't been to your school's Senate yet, I highly recommend going 10/10. You won't regret going. It might just be the most memorable times of college. Shoutout to Hollins University's Senate. You guys are the highlight of my week.
