“Social change cannot happen in one meeting,” said Senate Secretary Lili Sharpless as the meeting continued into its second hour. On Jan 30, members of Senate met under the guidance of two Conflict Resolution Resource Center (CRRC) counselors to discuss a possible restructuring of Senate. Senators held the restructuring meeting to voice their concerns about the current structure of Senate and the balance of power.

To help keep the meetings calm and productive, CRRC counselors Will Johnson and Dana DiMaio mediated. They led the discussions, kept notes, helped answer questions, and moved the conversation forward when Senators got stuck in fruitless arguments.

“The CRRC was involved in mediating past Senate meetings, and people felt that it helped things remain calm and productive – so they brought us in to this meeting,” DiMaio said.

The meeting was divided between senators who want to see a change in structure and senators who do not see the need for change. Former Senator Malcolm Kenton was one of the leading voices of change.

“There are people who are discontent with the way [Senate] is being run. There needs to be a way for everyone to voice their ideas and concerns,” Kenton said.

Senate President Ali Stewart explained that Senate has already made big changes this semester. “We’ve tried to move away from Senate’s role as a bank for clubs,” Stewart said. “In doing so, we will be able to deal with bigger issues concerning students.”

Senator David Norton suggested that Senate allow an open number of seats for non-Senators in the Senate meetings. Currently, non-Senators can go to Senate meetings and voice their concerns, but they cannot be part of the actual decision-making process. The proposed change would enable any number of non-Senator students to come to a Senate meeting and be part of the decision-making process.

Senator Chris Lampkin was quick to point out the potential danger of having an unlimited number of open seats for regular students. “You’d be running the risk of a huge group of students coming in and swaying a decision in their favor without any opposition.”

“I realize that a huge group could make an unfair impact,” Kenton said. “We need regulation, but it shouldn’t just be a number of non-Senators that can come to the Senate meetings and be a part of the process.”

The CRRC counselors followed Lampkin’s statement by marking his ideas down in their notes and opening up the floor for further questions.

There was a general consensus amongst the people in attendance that the current Senate executives are doing a good job. However, the current Senate executives won’t always be in charge.

“The current Senate is good, but who knows what the future holds,” said senior Chris Wells. Wells went on to propose stricter bylaws to ensure that future Senate executives do not have unlimited power that they could potentially exploit.

“My greatest apprehension is that this is being done through the Student Concerns Committee, but this isn’t a huge concern for the majority of students,” Stewart said. “Instead, this is the concern of a few students who haven’t given the new changes enough time to work.”

“If students don’t care, nothing will happen regardless,” said first-year Meisha McDaniel. “The focus needs to be less on the structure and more on realistic goals like student participation.”

Elections for non-executive Senate positions were held the day after the restructuring meeting. Students elected housing and club representatives who will attend Senate meetings on their behalf.