The governing body of Otterbein College, the Otterbein Senate, is unique in it's inclusion of both faculty and student opinions.
This past fall, students decided to increase their voice in Otterbein governance and establish the Student Council.
The group wanted to make sure the student voice was heard concerning changes happening on campus.
The Council met twice this week, first in its regularly scheduled meeting Monday night, and again yesterday when the members met with Otterbein President C. Brent DeVore to discuss how students can help lessen the impact of the reconstruction of the West Main Street Bridge.
According to DeVore, Otterbein is doing everything they can to minimize the reconstruction's impact on students.
"The best way you can help is to put your creative minds together and see what you can come up with," he said.
The project is scheduled to begin in April, 2009 and be completed sometime in August, so it should only affect students for one quarter.
"It's only a short amount of time, but it's going to be a problem for students and we need a solution," said sophomore Ben Leffel, Student Council president. "Student Council is working on some explanatory research to see if there is anything we can do."
Monday's meeting focused primarily on enhancing "curb appeal" and furthering sustainability by requiring professors to post class material online, instead of printing out many copies of required materials.
We think parts of the campus could use a little sprucing. It's a problem that is also recognized by the administration," said Leffel. "We want the campus to look nice for prospective students, and the community, and with student input we can accomplish that."
Abíódún Góké-Paríolá, vice president of Academic Affairs, encouraged students at Monday's meeting.
"We don't look bad at all, but we could definitely look a whole lot better. We can't think with limited imagination, but we need to ask, if we could dream, what would we want to look like," he said.
Currently, Student Council is also working on converting to an A+ grading scale, and establishing a student activities fee that would be disbursed to organizations for funding. They are also working with Bon Appétit to improve food services.
Student Council will be meeting Monday nights during the even weeks of the quarter.
Mary Kerr, executive assistant to the president, will be attending the next Student Council meeting, tentatively scheduled for Monday, May 19.
"Student Council created a voice for the students," said sophomore vice president Emily Hoffman. "We produce strictly student-driven initiatives and provide an opportunity to turn ideas into realities." t&c;
