A large part of Student Government, Student Senate committees voice students’ concerns on campus through researching bills and developing legislation to be presented to the rest of the Senate. Committees go through a long process of debate to ensure the issues they focus on are representative of their constituents, the student body.
“The committees really serve to strengthen Student Government,” said Appropriations Chair Rachel Nagley, a senior studying industrial engineering. “We kind of have the responsibility on us to represent all the students at NC State and hear their concerns, as well as represent their voices to the administration. In Student Government, we are really not a body of power as much as we are the body of influence.”
The Senate hosts two types of committees, permanent and standing. Senators are required to be on at least one standing committee. Standing committees include Academics, Finance, Government Relations and Oversight, University Affairs, and University Relations.
“[Standing committees] are committees that confer session to session,” said Mia Connell, a sophomore studying sociology and senator representing the Poole College of Management. “They meet every two weeks, typically on the off weeks we don’t meet for Senate as a whole. We also have permanent committees, which include Appropriations, Leadership and Development, and then Tuition and Fees. The permanent committees don’t meet as often. They just meet as needed depending on their focus and then those are voluntary.”
Committees are focused on writing bills which define concerns from constituents. At Senate meetings, which occur every other week, Senators hear bills. These bills have either been drafted by a committee or a specific senator.
“Once a bill, if [it] is sent for a first reading and then it’s sent back to committee, comes before Senate again for a second reading, it’s fast tracked and it automatically gets put into that second reading category,” Nagley said. “Once we pass a bill and a majority of people agree that they agree with what that bill is stating, then it’s sent to the student body president’s desk, and the student body president can choose to sign off on the bill and make sure that its intent is carried out, whether it’s by addressing administration or a specific department within the university to get the ball rolling on having action made.”
The Appropriations Committee, led by Nagley, appropriates the largest part of the Student Government budget, which is funded by student fees. One-third of student fees is required to go to Appropriations, which divides the money and allocates it to the many clubs on campus.
“At the beginning of the academic year, Appropriations kind of gets a big pot of money,” Nagley said. “Then during the year, there’s two opportunities for us to allocate that money. We tried to divide it pretty evenly between the two cycles — fall break to spring break and spring break to the following fall break. As we are probably the largest presence on campus and since we interact with a lot of organizations and student leaders, we request for them to apply through appropriations. Once they’ve submitted a request for funds they come in and go through an interview process with us.”
Both Nagley and Connell encourage students to get involved with Student Government, especially by attending committee and Senate meetings, which are open to the public.
“Every student is welcome to come,” Connell said. “It does kind of give a little bit of insight on what Student Government Senate is working on, which can be helpful because it’s not always extremely publicized what we’re doing. If someone wants to get involved, this is a noncommittal way to get involved and know what’s going on in Student Government. Just by attending these meetings and listening to what’s going on, we will listen to feedback when it comes to those meetings.”
The dates for Senate and committee meetings are available on the Student Government website.
