Monica Rodriguez | Reporter
During the fall semester, Baylor’s student government has been working hard on various activities, bills and other behind-the-scenes actions which have contributed to bettering the entire campus, along with student life.
The student government often teams up with various other student organizations on campus such as Student Foundation and Baylor Student Activities. The events held are usually ones that offer help to the student body come together or support and promote their commitment to provide a caring campus community.
Augusta, Ga., junior Palmer Brigham joined Student Government this year for the first time as their press secretary.
“A big theme for [President] Amye’s [Dickerson] administration is that she wants to promote what student government actually is,” Brigham said. “Not just this entity on campus, but how they’re active in Baylor and Waco’s community. We really want that transparency to be there.”
Something the student government has been able to do this semester is support at least 23 student organizations through All-University events. Students may have seen the student government logo on banners or fliers at these events. Different student organizations can approach student government who are in turn able to help them through their allocation fund. One of these events have been the All-University Thanksgiving dinner in partnership with Student Foundation.
The last student government meeting took place Thursday in the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation, where all members took their first group photo of the 2017-2018 school year.
Yet, the work of student government for the school year has just begun. The group also has a lot planned for the spring semester and are already working on initiatives to implement within campus and the student body for next year.
Recently, Student Body President Amye Dickerson just started putting out new, and more frequent press releases that mimic the Presidential Perspectives put out weekly by Baylor’s own President, Linda Livingstone. These often include thoughts about recent national occurrences or statements about All-University events.
Earlier in November, an ad-hoc committee was created to address the structure of Student Government. This was done in order to ensure the organization continues to represent the diverse interests of the school. The selected group of students meet throughout the semester to examine how the Baylor student body is being represented in Student Government.
Another project being worked on is an important bill that is going to be seen in student senate next semester that could affect various students within the Baylor community.
“The goal of the bill is to ask Baylor to allow organizations that don’t adhere to the university’s faith statement to be recognized on campus,” said Suzie Tkach, a sophomore from Carrollton, Texas. “This is a super important bill in terms of diversity and inclusion and would allow Muslim or Jewish student associations to exist in an official capacity on campus.”
With so many different things going on in the Baylor community, the goal of student government continues to remain the same: to represent the student body and enrich the quality of student life on and off campus.
For anyone else looking to get involved in student government, Brigham says it’s never too late to get a foot in the door or gain some political experience within the school.
“Starting as a newcomer into this, I’ve been so surprised
in how active student government is on campus and within the student body,”
said Brigham. “Having this opportunity to serve on Amye’s cabinet has been so
welcoming and I definitely encourage other students to consider serving as
well.”
