By Madison Miller
Reporter
Student government will commemorate 100 years as the voice of the Baylor student body beginning at 6 p.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium.
Arlington senior Dominic Edwards, student body president, said he plans to look toward the future by celebrating the past. To do so, they are bringing in past student government members and will discuss ways to improve student government as a whole.
“Are we where we want to be right now? Sure,” Edwards said. “Could we do more to really achieve optimum point of student voice and optimum point of shared governance? Yes, but everything that they’ve done has been so helpful for me specifically this year.”
The mission of the student government is to represent the student body, with respect to the Christian commitment and the ideals of Baylor University.
The association was founded on December 17, 1914, and recognized as an official student organization a few weeks later in 1915.
“Just because of logistics and that sort of thing, we decided to host the celebration for the centennial year in February 2015,” Edwards said.
Several generations of student government are attending the celebration Saturday not only to commemorate and pay homage to predecessors, but also to look toward the future to continue the tradition of leadership and service, Edwards said.
Although Austin junior Catherine Booth cannot attend the events on Saturday because of All-University Sing, she said student government is always building on the past.
“We take what worked and what didn’t and use that to help us improve campus,” said Booth, who is class president of the junior class.
Edwards is expecting about 50 alumni to return to the celebration. All events will take place in McLane Stadium.
“After rolling up the sleeves a little bit, we will head up to the president’s suite in McLane Stadium,” Edwards said. “And then we will go to the Lady Bears game and cheer them on as they hopefully beat TCU.”
Some of the notable attendees include Justice Don Willett and Russ Sullivan, the 1982 student body president.
“The past is such a good indication of where we can go in terms of the relational authority that student government has,” Edwards said. “I sit in my role today standing on the shoulders of so many past presidents because of what they’ve done.”
Edwards looks to his predecessors for places to build and go forward. The website states that the essence of the mission of the student government would not be present without the hundreds of influencers and decision makers who spent time in student government.
“I am looking forward to a more engaged alumni base,” Edwards said. “As we look toward this idea of commitment at the university, it is all about getting them in front of current students, it is all about connecting them.”
Edwards said he believes that by having the alumni back on campus for this event, they can impact the lives, hearts and mind of the alumni.
“People don’t realize the impact of student government,” Edwards said. “It is by design, not by default.”
Booth said she loves the people involved in student government.
“They are so dedicated to serving the student body and there is so much heart in all of them,” Booth said.
