Student senate’s influence on the Grand Valley State University campus community reaches from the annual Presidents’ Ball to the distribution of the student life fund. However, not many are aware of the small projects that go on throughout the year. The student senate is made up of seven committees, headed by a vice president, an executive vice president and a president, all focused on different areas of student interest. Here are some goals that the 2015-2016 student senate cabinet has for the year.

1. Lawrence Williams, vice president for senate resources

“My main priority as VP of SRC is to make sure student senate remains a professional body while integrating senators with the students we represent. This would include not only projects from senators from an internal standpoint, but connections and resources among the administration and students-at-large. Although much of my job involves the internal structure of senate, it will ultimately reflect based on the experience that senators will have outside of general assembly. I want to make sure that when a senator leaves a meeting, those who attended receive a positive view of what senate does and the amount of dedication senators have for what we do here at Grand Valley. Making sure this goal is fulfilled is my top priority.”

2. Jeremy Turnbull, vice president for finance

The finance committee is in charge of administering the Student Life Fund to student organizations. They evaluate monetary expenditures to ensure funds are being used for maximum campus impact.

3. Sean O’Melia, vice president for campus affairs

“I’d like to find some way to hold a open discussion to get any new ideas on how to make Grand Valley the best place it can be, because student senate doesn’t know everything, so we can’t fix everything. But if people tell us about problems that are on campus then we can work towards fixing them and making GVSU even better. I’d like to see our continual growth with technology services, whether it’s instructing people how to use some of our current services or getting in new devices that would be beneficial for the students such as Smart Boards in some areas.”

4. Maria Beelen, vice president for educational affairs

“First off, I want to work on bringing information about CV’s and how to write them online. A large majority of graduates will have to write up a CV at some point, and as far as I know, Grand Valley does not offer much help in this area (online or walk in service). Secondly, GVSU does not offer a Native American studies minor, and I’d love to see that an option here. Thirdly, a senator on my committee (Malayna Hasmanis) has spent the last year working to bring American Sign Language (ASL) to Grand Valley as a official language credit, meaning to fill a language cognate a student could take ASL, in place of French, Spanish or any other language. Of course I am also very excited to plan and coordinate the annual Last Lecture. For Last Lecture we have students nominate outstanding professors that have really made a difference in their experience here at Grand Valley. We go from there and have student senators vote on the professor they would like. The lecture’s topic is for the faculty member to decide, but the theme is, if you were to give the last lecture of your life, what would you want to convey? Last Lecture is without a doubt one of my favorite events of the year. Educational affairs has some great committee members, and I can’t wait to see what my committee and what senate as a whole can accomplish.”

5. Mackenzie Butler, vice president for diversity affairs

“I’d say my main goal for next year is to foster relationships with more diverse and cultural organizations, strategizing how we can all work together to improve inclusiveness and acceptance on campus. Last year the diversity affairs committee did a really great job of responding to current events and creating safe spaces for students to talk about relevant social issues, which is something I want to continue to do as well.”

6.Matthew Bogden, vice president for external relations

“As the vice president of the external relations committee, my goal is to have our committee continue the work we started last year. Our goal is to strengthen and build relationships with the surrounding communities. I have asked the committee members to think of various projects we could work on during this upcoming school year.”

7. Ella Fritzmeier, vice president for public relations

“My goal for next year is a couple of things, and hopefully you can phrase this better than I can. I’d love to see an increase in interactions between student senate and the student body. This will most likely be through events, tabling, campus forums, and hopefully more. I am also planning on focusing on freshmen, especially at the beginning of the year. Face-to-face interactions will be our main goal, to increase more awareness and hopefully more support and input from the student body.”