The Student Senate has now changed its bylaws so that all students can apply, regardless of experience.

The Student Senate serves as the governing body over student affairs at Knox College. The purpose of it is to represent the student body and act as a bridge to communicate students’ concerns to the faculty and administration. In previous years, only senators who had served at least one year in the Senate were eligible to run for Executive Board positions. Now, applications that are open to all students include positions such as President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Previously, to apply for the Treasurer role, candidates were required to be a member of the finance committee or attend at least five finance committee meetings and actively participate in the Senate budgeting process. 

Junior Sustainability Chair and Senate’s President candidate Nicole Roman believes that before, students may not have gotten involved in the Senate because they felt unrepresented. 

“We were facing lots of criticism from students as they do not feel represented. They also feel that elected candidates got the position just because of their friends, not because of their capacity and changes they make on campus,” Roman said. 

She believes that this sense of underrepresentation could have come from application requirements. 

“The Executive Board positions were limited to those who served in Senate before. Although this was to ensure that the candidates have enough knowledge and experiences, over time, it created the cycle of the same faces,” said Roman. 

This year, the Executive Committee has been trying to make the bylaws more coherent, and also reposition Senate to better communicate between the student body and the school administration. Changing the Executive Board application to allow for more diverse candidates is one of their efforts to achieve this goal. Along with that, they also revised the membership requirements and the election criteria. 

“We want to diversify Senate and get more ideas from people around campus,” said senior President of the Senate, Manavi Subba.

Both Roman and Subba expressed their excitement at seeing many new faces applying for the positions, especially first-year students. With three more years at Knox, first-year students will have the opportunity to bring new ideas, strategies, and actions that can help better serve the student body. 

Both sophomore Abdullah Kamal, candidate for the Treasurer position, and sophomore Haruka Shoji think that this is a good change, but still believe that the President and Vice President should ideally have prior Senate experience. This, according to them, would help pass down traditions and allow these positions to better manage the organization. 

“Performing as a President is not an easy position. If something goes wrong, the whole institution can collapse,” Kamal said.  

As President, Subba agrees with this viewpoint. 

“I’m really glad that both the presidential candidates have experience in Senate before. Being the president is a very challenging job that requires lots of patience and care that none of us can learn very quickly and easily,” said Subba. 

At the same time, Subba pointed out that stepping into a new position can be scary at first, no matter how much experience a candidate has. However, she believed that as long as the candidates show enough care in their work, they can figure out how to perform their duties well. 

To help with this transition, the Student Senate will provide training for potential new board members.