Q&A with Student Senate Executives: Morgan Nelson, president-elect

Q:What does leadership mean to you?

A: Leadership. Leadership is not enforcing what you think on everybody. You have to do what’s best for everybody; not necessarily what’s going to be the most fun for you, or exactly what you want, you know. You play fair, you try to like keep everyone happy, but to the point that you still do your job well.

Q: What do you think of the current senate sponsors?

A: They do a great job. I think they do a great job helping us regulate what we do, you know, ‘cause its easy for things to go a certain way really fast, without proper consideration, because people sometimes, people like to get out of the meetings a little fast, but I think they’re great.

Q: Would you like to see the involvement of the sponsors increase, decrease, or stay the same?

A: Well, I mean, they, I think they regulate well, like, what they do now, I mean, Dr. Schaeffer spoke up, I’ve never really seen Dr. Brust, you know, say one way or the other. I think they do a good job. I mean, they had something of like a workshop for new senators at the beginning of the year, which was really helpful, about like ‘parli’ ‘pro’ and stuff, but I think they do a great job the way they are.

Q: As you might be aware, the senate can have a maximum of three sponsors. Are you planning to use the maximum number during your administration?

A: Yes, I would. I think diversity is really good, as far as anything in senate, you know, we have a lot of health professions senators right now, and I’m really pushing to get a diverse group of senators from every area, and so I think that also should reflect in the faculty. I think I’d like to see all the sponsor’s spots be filled promptly, so that things are running, you know, the way they could be and should be.

Q: Have you established any issues that you feel are especially relevant to the student body?

A: Making, study areas and libraries more student-friendly. I like libraries, but I don’t really like ours as much, cause its kinda cold – like I love the staff and everything and everybody there – but its really bland and bleak. That’s something I’d like to change, even like, in any way that we can, you know, we don’t have to like, build a new library; its just like a coat of paint, the way its arranged, you know? I think that students would benefit from more places like that that are really friendly for studying purposes.

Q: What is one thing you don’t like about the current senate system, and how would you change it?

A: Currently, I think that there is not enough diversity as far as who’s on senate,  depending on residence halls. Especially even off-campus. I mean, they deserve quite a bit of a voice on senate as well. I’d like to see more diversity in the people. There’s different aspects of thinking in every major, and to compliment our system, the best way to do it is to have the most amount of diversity.

Q: So you’ve identified that some of the areas that you want to change as being more diversity based on residence location and diversity by academic major, but how do you want to work on changing that problem?

A: Well, currently, when I first started senate, I had a problem trying to get in. I was scared to get in. I was really timid. I didn’t know a thing about the system. I think the biggest way to go about changing that is to make it obvious that senate is a friendly place. We’re just students, and we’re trying to represent the students.