Photo by: Ashley Alonzo
The start of the ’17-’18 school year at Ottawa University has already seen some improvements from the previous school year. I spoke with our newly elected Student Senate Vice President, Graham Dixon, about what we could expect to look for regarding campus improvements.
Dixon wanted to inform the student body of a few things on campus that Student Senate has worked toward that are new this year or were made possible toward the end of last year. For example, the new “choose to reuse” program was something Senate made the decision to implement at the beginning of this year.
Moving into this new year, Dixon hopes to push the “Braves supporting Braves” concept that involves increasing extracurricular activity attendance. Dixon says he wants to see “activities or projects started where it feels like Braves are supporting Braves.”
The concept was introduced during new student orientation with the purpose of promoting students to “become more involved” according to Dixon. Along with the “Braves supporting Braves” concept, he intends to use his newly elected power to begin a more transparent communication stream with the “higher ups” of the campus.
Optimistically, he hopes to smooth out the choose to reuse process, add more charging stations in higher volume areas, and continue to implement “black and gold Fridays.” Once a rich tradition on campus, black and gold Fridays are something to keep an eye out for as Student Senate looks to incentivize students to rebrand this tradition, as well as bookstore discounts.
Another Student Senate sponsored event to look for this fall semester is a Town Hall event scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, in the Schendel Conference Center. This event is set up as an open forum for students to ask questions to those “in-charge” such as President Eichner, Campus Provost Terry Haines, Academic Dean Teresa Kelley, Athletic Director Arabie Conner and many more influencers across campus.
Another key point that the new Vice President mentioned is the communication between students and their senators. Dixon talked about having a streamlined way to hear more voices across the campus by working through senate sponsored twitter accounts.
For more to come, keep your eyes out for Graham Dixon and the rest of the Student Senate members across campus who work hard to better the Ottawa University experience!