Seven student groups, including For Members Only, Alianza and Women’s Coalition, are scrambling to find a voice in Associated Student Government this year after losing their ASG senator spots.
Some groups were unaware they had lost representation until informed of their status by a Daily reporter. But now some group leaders say they plan to fight to get their senators back.
“It’s important for us to have a voice in ASG,” Alianza president Katherine Unmuth said. “I think it’s very important to have a diverse selection of voices represented.”
Srikanth Reddy, ASG executive vice president, said he would not extend the deadline out of fairness to groups who turned in applications on time. Thirty student groups applied for 22 senator spots, with seven groups losing positions and seven others gaining spots.
The Chinese Students Association, Habitat for Humanity, Interfraternity Council and Polish American Students Alliance also lost senators. Alternative Spring Break, Best Buddies, Dance Marathon, National Pan-Hellenic Council, Northwestern Community Ensemble, Nugget and the Turkish Student Association each gained a spot.
Reddy said he “physically handed” the application to members of all the groups that lost senators at Leadership Advisory Board sessions, which the president and treasurer of all ASG-recognized student groups are required to attend. Including officer reports at Senate meetings and e-mails to the student group leader listserv, Reddy said he sent at least 27 reminders to student groups.
Although Unmuth and other student group leaders said they would try to appeal the decision, Reddy said that would be nearly impossible.
“In my mind, that would be showing gross favoritism to a few student groups while disregarding the rest of them,” said Reddy, a McCormick junior.
But the executive committee will soon choose alternate student-group senators, who gain a slot if another student group loses its senator. Reddy said groups who lost senators could be selected as alternates.
ASG President Jordan Heinz, last year’s executive vice president, said only one group failed to turn in its application on time in Spring Quarter 2000. He did not extend the deadline.
“It’s made pretty explicit in LAB in the spring,” said Heinz, an Education senior. “It should be something they already think about.”
Although the CSA had a senator last year and turned its application in on time, it was not given a senator because it is part of the Asian American Advisory Board, an umbrella organization that already has a senator.
But South Asian Student Alliance, another AAAB umbrella group, retained its senator. Reddy said the executive committee decided AAAB should have two senators because of its size, and SASA, with about 600 students, is the largest of the three AAAB groups that applied.
Serena Li, external chairwoman for CSA, said she was unaware her group had lost its senator. AAAB chairwoman Marie Claire Tran also was not aware of the change in Senate. She said she understood the executive committee’s point of view but did not want to comment further until she investigated the situation.
Reddy said leadership turnover would not be an excuse to appeal the decision.
“During leadership transitions, that should be something past presidents inform the current president of,” he said.
But even if groups do not have a senator this year, they still hope to get their voices heard by forming coalitions with other activist student groups and through dorm senators.
“We don’t need someone to have the title of FMO senator to share our thoughts and views,” said Mike Blake, FMO treasurer and a member of the ASG executive committee. “We have to present ourselves not only as senators for our dorms, but for African-American students on campus.”
