Blog Post #11: Draft Two

I was involved with Student Government Association in high school and it helped me to find other clubs and hobbies such as interact club and cross country that have helped me to make friends all over campus and find what interests me. I would love to dive into Student Senate and really find out how big of an impact this community can have on a student. Student Senate specifically has so many students involved and it makes me curious as to how it has had an effect on its members, how has it shaped their individual college experience thus far? Once you graduate college and have the degree you look back on what it was like to attend Florida State and if you truly made the most of its resources and experiences. Student Government in high school helped me to get the most of my high school experience and I think it could really help me to get the most of college. How can the Florida State Student Senate help to shape a student’s individual college experience?

The Student Senate at Florida State is composed of eighty members whom represent FSU’s seventeen divisions of majors. If you go to the FSU SGA web page you will see this information along with a description about the Legislative branch as a whole at FSU. The eighty-member senate is broken up by first and second years considered “undergraduate studies” and third and fourth year students are grouped and classified by their majors. “Senators are elected in the fall and spring about five weeks after classes begin. To run for the Senate, you must file your candidacy application with the Supervisor of Elections office by the advertised deadline, usually four weeks after classes begin.” (SGA.FSU) This is a brief description of how a candidate would run to be a Student Senator at FSU. This is important to the overall Student Senate process because one must understand what the Student Senate is at FSU and how to get involved before deciding whether or not they too would want to get involved. “Campus political parties usually help their candidate’s complete candidacy applications and submit them for their candidates. Most parties interview students to choose those whose campaigns the parties will support.” This is a crucial component of getting involved/elected into the Student Senate because a student can choose to run independently or with an on-campus, student run political party, these parties are what help students along the process of getting into the Senate.

The current Senate is the sixty-ninth Student Senate at FSU and the elections currently taking place are for the seventieth Student Senate, ran by students. The overall goal of the Student Senate is to advocate for the FSU student body for events, clubs, and change on campus. This is very powerful because this student run organization, gets to invite change and make change happen around campus that students what to see. This could be a small action like a club wanting money from SGA for shirts, in which senate would vote yes or no to fund the shirts and for how much they would cost. To much larger change such as implementing gender neutral bathrooms, this is a huge change for any public community, especially a university to such change. The Student Senate at FSU is supposed to be a community where students can take action, be leaders, and voice their opinions where they know they will be heard and taken into consideration. “Student Governance has existed as an integral part of higher education since the time of the first college in Colonial America.” (May, Walter P) Student Government in many ways encourages students to get involved and find their place in the college setting whether it’s in Student Government or in other clubs and activities. Many students in Student Government are involved in other clubs, Panhellenic, club sports, and other organizations etc. This on-campus organization is a place where students from all walks of life and all parts of campus are encouraged to join.

This organization exists to promote leadership and involvement of the student body of the university. Students like the ones in Student Senate, are meant to represent the student body and act as influencers that promote change and success on campus. Without this specific organization, the school would likely create one just like it for leadership and student involvement is a necessity on any college campus. This organization effects members of the Tallahassee community as well because these are the students who go out into the world, following their time at Florida State and make positive change to society. The Student Senate volunteers their time in Tallahassee at events such as FSU Day at the Florida Capital, to show their Florida State spirit and support. The Student Senators act as leaders not just on the campus but into the Tallahassee community and into the workforce. The qualities and experiences they may take from their time in Student Senate help them gain knowledge of professionalism, leadership, and collaboration – to only name a few. “Student government is important to community colleges for a variety of reasons, well beyond simply providing students an opportunity to be involved in charting the direction of the college.” (Miles, Jennifer) In Jennifer Miles piece she discusses how Student Government is important to community colleges, this also highlights how Student Government is important to all types of educational entities such as in Universities. Student Government is the heart of other organizations and involvements of the college campus, for the fact that Student Government is connected to other organizations in a way where they all meet and interact such as coordinating events is important to the overall college students’ college experience.

The Student Government Association exists for the purpose of serving and representing the student body of FSU. This means, that every decision made by its members must be made in a way they believe any and all students on campus would want to see if happen or be implemented on campus. For example, if I am elected as a Student Senator I may want to develop strategies or a plan of action to help students who may feel marginalized on campus. This means, that students such as freshman, graduate students, disabled students, transfer students, etc., any students that feel as if they haven’t found their niche or feel like FSU is so big to them and they haven’t felt included or in touch with the university have a place here at the school. We could do this by promoting new ideas in which we can include these groups of students who feel this way and try to make it better for them, or an easier transition to the school. We could host events such as a spring transfer rally where all the new students starting at Florida State can come out to the event and feel included, at the event they can also get to know other students and develop friendships among one another.

Mercedes Poole, is a Student Senator and a sophomore at Florida State. She is the chair of the Finance committee within Student Senate and she is a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at FSU. Mercedes Poole is very involved in student life on campus and her favorite by far is the Student Senate. “Florida State and my time in SGA thus far has made me more of a professional, I know how to professionally dress, how to professionally speak to people, obviously friends. It is just a wonderful place to surround yourself with people who think the same as you, like they are all crazy involved and it’s amazing to have organizations and people that are super involved and they drive you to be more involved.” Here, she discusses her reasons as to why the Student Senate at FSU is such a great place. “It is the best way to get involved, because you hear from so many organizations and so many people. You are surrounded by people who push you to be and do your best. You learn more about the amenities on campus that most people don’t even know about. It’s a great way to make FSU feel at home. I consider these people to be my family.” Here, Mercedes continues to highlight just how Student Senate is significant to her and why she would recommend Student Senate to other students at FSU. “Any legislation it’s nice to have support on it so that and also academic, Students within Senate have pushed me to be the best student on campus, and get involved with organizations that I need to be involved in for my career and finance major I obviously need to apply to some things academically in senate and in other clubs and organizations.” Here, Mercedes is explaining how Student Senate promotes collaboration and her views of teamwork in all aspects on community, she also expresses how collaboration has affected her individually in the Student Senate environment. It is evident just how much Student Senate has impacted Mercedes college experience thus far in how she explains her personal connection to the organization and how she hopes to maintain the levels of professionalism and leadership into life post-graduation.

“I want to continue my term because I am just now working on and finally getting the ball rolling with the election code, and I started that back in fall. I want to continue to work with the Finance committee. I also love senate, Wednesday night senate is my favorite night of the week, and I love debating with people. We all love to speak in Senate, like your voice is wanted, they want you to speak how you feel. They all respect you and encourage you to participate and speaking on what you believe in.” Mercedes clearly has a passion for the Student Senate because she talks about it in admiration and states how she wants to continue with it year after year. It is evident that she loves the Student Senate and encourages her peers and other students on campus to join Student Government and get involved with events on campus. From talking to Mercedes, anyone could see her leadership skills and professionalism, she is definitely a positive representation of the Student Government Organization and Student Senate at FSU. Mercedes not only represents both of these organizations, her sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, FSU, but also The Unite Party. The Unite Party is a political party on campus that promotes student diversity, making SGA more inclusive, and collaborating with all organizations and entities across campus to promote student leadership and change at FSU. The Unite Party is the political party Mercedes used to help run for and campaign for Student Senate for her second year at FSU.

Throughout the research process, I have learned just how valuable the Student Senate is to me and how I believe I can really see myself getting involved in this community. The Student Senate is the organization within Student Government that I wish to join because I can see myself being able to give my opinions and ideas for the University and where I can make an impact on the school. I have many ideas for student engagement and involvement with Student Government to implement on campus where all students can become active in the decision making regardless of being in the Senate or not. As a Student Senator, I will be able to listen and promote the ideas of students and be able to work towards implementing them. This is something that I value because I want to get the most out of attending and getting a degree from Florida State University. The Student Senate at FSU can have a positive impact on a student’s college experience by teaching them professionalism, leadership skills, collaboration skills, public speaking and help me them make a positive impact on the school. This positive impact on the school will help the student to feel as if they have gotten the most out of FSU and their college degree.