“Wait, what does the Senate even do? 🤨🙄🙄🤨🙄” - Everyone at Stanford
This past year, I served as Deputy Chair of the ASSU Senate, and here are some of the things I did:
- Authored and passed bylaws clarifying the role of class presidents and formally merged them into the ASSU to increase accountability and transparency
- Met with Stanford Transportation to promote undergraduate student access to the Caltrain Go Pass (hopefully available to students by next fall!)
- Working with Stanford Campus Planning and Design to install light reflectors on the path around Lake Lag
- Ran the Senate Associate Program for students curious about how student government actually works
- Working alongside Wesley Marshall to implement a Transfer Student Council to push for more representation
- Helped select the new Nominations Commission, which appoints student representatives to major university committees like the Board of Trustees
- Organized On Call Café Senate coffee chats, including a mental health event with CAPS, Well-Being, and The Flourish
- Helped host a winter quarter town hall through the Political Action Committee (shoutout Laila, Intisar, and Princess)
- Connected with community centers to better understand how the Senate can support them
What I want to do next:
- Continue pushing on the Caltrain Go Pass and publish updates on negotiations
- Audit lighting and late-night transit routes in collaboration with students
- Advocate for 30-minute frequency on the Marguerite SE line over the weekends
- Release a short end-of-quarter report summarizing what passed, what stalled, and why
- Host an info session during NSO and Week 1 of Fall Quarter on the different branches of student government and what exactly we do
- Continue working on a Transfer Council and potentially reserving a Senate seat for Transfer students
- Keep coffee chats going so you can bring issues directly to senators (+ free drinks)
- Host at least one town hall each quarter
- Send weekly updates on social media on what the Senate and each specific committee are doing
- Table more to make the student government easier to understand
- Continue building partnerships with community centers and VSOs, with more regular check-ins.
So next time someone asks, “Wait, what does the Senate even do?”
You can say, “Not nothing!”
Cheers,
Minji Cho
insta: @minjiccho
promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
insta: @minjiccho
promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
