After postponed elections and the transition of changing membersof the student senate, Wednesday’s first ASPSU meeting of newsenators was finally held.
With that meeting, the administration of Christy Harper and RyanKlute begins a year of trying to serve out the promises it made tothe students that voted for them.
One of those promises was to make ASPSU a more integral part ofstudents’ lives, with information about senate activities made moreavailable to PSU students.
One concern the new administration will try to address is theopinion shared by many students that ASPSU is not important, andthe fact that many students are unaware of what ASPSU does.
Katie Carlson is one of those students. A sophomore at PSU, shesaid she doesn’t know the purpose of ASPSU. She said that what shewould like to see is a promotion of how and where to getinformation about who they are.
“If they propose a change, I would like to see it,” shesaid.
Daniel Sanders, a PSU student, said that because PSU is acommuter school most students don’t really care about ASPSU.
The new group of individuals working for ASPSU are an amazingteam who come from diverse backgrounds, Vice President Ryan Klutesaid. All have a passion of creating change, as Klute said hehimself does.
He says he hopes to build a bridge between students and ASPSUand let students know that their issues are student’s issues.
Klute said that he’s trying to help the school as a whole, andwill begin to provide information to students about the relevancyof ASPSU to the student body.
Currently the new staff of ASPSU is still in its transitionprocess, assessing changes that need to be made in ASPSU andPSU.
That state of transition was evident at Wednesday’s senatemeeting, where new senators gathered in an atmosphere of hopefulchange.
Klute displayed a desire to follow the guidelines of theparliamentary procedures the senate meetings run by to the best ofhis ability, as well as enforce guidelines of respect into themeeting process.
“The senate has an amazing potential of discourse,” he said,adding that he hopes those guidelines will help the senatorsmaintain a genuine sense of respect for each other and the senateprocess.
That potential for discourse became evident when Klute askedeach senator to introduce themselves and share their favoriteanimal noise.
After this intimate display of senator bonding was finished, newappointments were made for the Judicial Board and the Senate. Thenew Judicial Board appointments were Gazal Youssefi, Adam Zavalaand Michael-Sean Kelly; the three new senators are Forrest Parsons,Lisa Ward and Aaron O’Donnell.
| Senators soundoff Student senators mentioned their favorite animal noises at therequest of Vice President Ryan Klute’s at the beginning ofWednesday’s senate meeting. (Some senators even emulated theirfavorite sounds.) Ryan Klute, vice president: giraffe |