SUSA bill sets up time and space for students to gain insight from peers in their major

The Smith Undergraduate Student Association (SUSA) Assembly considered two bills at their meeting last Monday, ultimately deciding to pass one and table the other.

The first bill, "A Resolution to Accommodate Major Rep Office Hours in the Undergraduate Studies Office," passed unanimously through the Assembly. This bill would make it mandatory for major reps to hold weekly office hours in the undergraduate studies office and asked that a space be set aside in the office for them to do so without being underfoot.

Liz Moran, Assembly Representative for the Class of 2013, said she voted for the bill "because it facilitates peer to peer education, while solving the logistical trouble of setting something up with a student one on one."

These office hours would be an opportunity for students to come speak to and obtain advice from other students in their major. Adam Saunders, SUSA Vice President of Administration and the author of the bill, said, "We think it would really help students. Once they know the option exists and that they can go receive this help, we think it will really compliment what the advising office offers. It will take a load off of [the advising office] and improve student perception of what is there for them in the Smith School."

Saunders is confident that the bill will come to fruition by next semester, and says SUSA will begin marketing as soon as the bill is approved by the administration.

The second bill, "A Resolution to Recommend a Policy Mandating Event Attendance," was tabled due to conflicting viewpoints on the best way to approach the intent of the bill. Global Business Society Representative Olga Grishko wrote the bill as a way to combat the lack of participation by Smith School students in SUSA events.

"It just came down to doing something about the students who aren't involved at all. Only a third of the students are involved, and you need to figure out how to reach the rest," said Grishko.

The bill made an official recommendation to the administration that a policy be enacted requiring all students to attend at least one Smith School activity, speaker or event per semester. Besides citing the lack of attendance, Grishko cited the school's shrinking budget for events, saying it is a poor use of resources to put on events if people aren't going to show up.

Assembly representatives asked who would be in charge of tracking student attendance at events. They also wondered what the consequences would be for not attending an event, and debated whether or not mandating an attendance policy would simply lead to students physically attending events and mentally not being there.

"Everyone agrees that we want to have higher attendance at events. One way we're looking at to do that would be working with professors to make attendance an incentive," said Saunders.

In the end, the Assembly decided to work on the bill and present it again at their next meeting.  Grishko said she expected some resistance to the bill being mandatory, and will instead work with the recommendations of other representatives to come up with a bill everyone supports. "At least it wasn't shot down completely," she said. "It's just being taken in a new direction. I haven't given up on this. The concept still works."