The Chair’s report at the Student Senate meeting Thursday denoted a focus to better represent the entire student body—graduate students in particular—at Grand Valley State University.

“We’ve been working with grad students to give them better representation,” said Jack Iott, Student Senate president. “We want to make sure their voices are heard, but it’s an ongoing process.”

Other committees within the senate promoted different agendas for the year, including maximizing student voting and representation in the November elections. Some of the senators attended the West Michigan Policy Forum prior to the meeting and learned about the election season coming up, as well as state and local policies. Iott said one of the speakers was Gov. Rick Snyder, and GVSU President Thomas J. Haas was in attendance, as well.

To encourage student involvement in the elections, Student Senate is sponsoring the Secretary of State Voter Registration Drive on Sept. 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. near the Transformational Link on Allendale campus. “This is a part of the Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s 2012 ‘ExpressSOS’ Voter Registration Drive,” said Vice President of the public relations committee Lindsay Viviano. The last day to register for the November elections is Oct. 6, so this event is meant to encourage students to register now.

The Diversity Affairs committee also discussed a variety of events it has coming up throughout the semester. It plans to work on tackling topics like religion and multicultural issues on campus this year, said Rickey Benevidez, vice president of the committee. “We have ideas about hosting some faith-based lectures on campus this year,” Benevidez said.

Viviano also discussed her committee’s plans to reach out to other organizations so that they are more aware of Student Senate and what they do.

At the end of the meeting, the whole senate voted to install new members to their respective committees. The whole senate was ecstatic to install a senator who is not a traditional student, but instead a 10-year military veteran, who was unable to attend the meeting but was installed to the educational affairs committee. The senators agreed that the new representation will give Student Senate a broader range of members to better represent the whole student body from all backgrounds.

Next week, Student Senate will host a speaker who will discuss the new library, where it is in its building process, and what new features it will have. Students who are interested to hear this speaker or provide input on future events and policies can attend Thursday’s meeting at 4:30 p.m. in the Pere Marquette room in the Kirkhof Center.

[email protected]