During the last formal meeting of the administration of Student Council President John Nelson, the representative body debated and ultimately failed to pass a resolution that would have encouraged leaders of the various school and class councils across Grounds to attend Student Council meetings.
The proposed resolution - which was proposed by first-year representative Charlie Miller, who also serves as president of First Year Council - stated that those leaders should be encouraged to attend Student Council meetings at least twice a semester to discuss ideas and projects that could better cultivate relationships between Student Council and other councils on Grounds.
"Not everybody on [Student] Council knows how everyone else works and what everyone else does," Miller said. "I thought that was something that was really important ... It's just bridging the gap."\nSecond-year Engineering student Seth Kaye, however, questioned how the requirement could be enforced.
"This is pretty much just to start the discussion and have people understand to get it out there that there is a disconnect ... and we need to at least address it," Miller said. "This can somewhat solve it if they abide by it automatically, but it's not a mandate."
Nelson noted, however, that other councils might prefer to have a Student Council representative approach them rather than vice versa. More than a resolution, however, might be necessary for such an endeavor, he added. Miller responded that this proposal was considered during the drafting of the resolution; nevertheless, he felt that Student Council members would be less willing to do so because of the level of commitment it would add to their existing responsibilities.
"This is just one step in addressing this problem ... that I do believe we at least need to discuss," Miller said. "This is something just to start the ball rolling for the next administration to better the relationship ... so there's a better connection."
Law School representative Corey Clay pointed out that programs to encourage council members to connect with Student Council already exist at some schools within the University.
"We already have that in place in the Law School," Clay said. "I'm on the Student Bar Association and I'm a Student Council representative, so that's already in place for that reason so we do have someone at the meeting all the time."
Miller, however, said the resolution would encourage similar programs at schools that do not already have such a connection with Student Council.
"I'm the president of First Year Council, and there have been multiple times when I've tried to do some things and it's been a disconnect ... even though I'm on Student Council as representative here ... and I've had go out on my own to take care of," Miller said. "I just feel that it'd probably be a lot better if we were all on board and just understood what everybody else was doing."
Medical School representative Erik Criman suggested that Student Council could try through other means to reach out to the other councils, such as by forwarding Student Council meeting minutes.\nCollege representative Ben Wallace, meanwhile, proposed that Student Council should attempt something similar to the CIO consultant program.
"We can potentially do something very similar with class councils," Wallace said. "That's kind of a nice opportunity because the CIOs have the opportunity to contact us if they feel they need us and we have opportunity to divulge information to them if they feel it's pertinent to them and maybe that would maybe cut down a lot of the communication they don't need and maximize the communication they might want."
Chief of Cabinet Ben Chrisinger said the best route to initiate such a conversation is to have a formal meeting with other councils.
"I see this an effort at getting more collaboration and I think that's absolutely worthwhile," Chrisinger said. "But I think if you want it to be truly a collaboration, then before you pass a resolution that's asking others to do something for us or with us, it should be in a meeting sitting down and asking them what they want and how we're not currently meeting their needs because I don't think we can exactly articulate that right now."
But Vice President for Organizations Colin Hood said the representative body is in place partly to act as a liaison between Student Council and other schools within the University. To specify this further, Graduate Arts & Sciences representative David Hondula suggested that certain Student Council representatives should establish personal relationships with other councils and report back to Student Council in their weekly meetings, much as Student Council's committee chairs currently do.
"It might be a good way to institutionalize this collaboration that I think we all agree is worthwhile," Hondula said.
Miller noted that he wanted to initiate the discussion before the upcoming Student Council transition so the effort could benefit from the depth of understanding of current Student Council members.\nJen Wilson, president of the Engineering Student Council, said she does not believe the resolution would have enough clout to fix any perceived disconnect among councils.
"There are currently representatives from both the Engineering School and from Student Council that are expected to act as liaisons between the two organizations, yet there is still a deficiency in communication," Wilson said.
In fact, the Engineering Student Council does not currently interact with Student Council to any extent, Wilson said.
"I find out more about StudCo through the Cavalier Daily reports than through a direct communication with StudCo representatives," Wilson said. "There are Engineering representatives to Student Council ... And we have traditionally had trouble maintaining communication with those individuals."
Wilson also had concerns about the responsibilities involved in acting as a liaison between different Councils as suggested by the resolution.
"Individuals in these organizations would be required to add additional responsibilities to an individual student's already busy schedule," Wilson said. "I think we might want to improve the role of the current representatives before creating new representative positions."
Chrisinger added, however, that the discussion does not end with the demise of the resolution.
"As someone who's new to the organization," Chrisinger said, referring to Miller, "it'd be best [left] to someone like you. You have the time to build the relationships and make it happen"
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