The work of Bradley’s student senate is crucial.
Not just to students and campus life, but to Peoria as a whole.
Over the course of last semester, the senate focused on student advocacy and community outreach. One major action the senate took was attending conferences within Peoria in alignment with President Shadid’s “One Bradley” initiative.
“The One Bradley initiative is the philosophy that Bradley and Peoria can work in tandem with each other and provide opportunities for both students and Peorians as a whole,” senior political science major and student body president Al Cuizon, Jr. said.
One conference of note is the Big Table, a gathering of community leaders in downtown Peoria that discusses economic and community development.
Cuizon, Jr. attended the Big Table conference as part of a panel that discussed the development of talent pipelines for Bradley students. This provides students with job opportunities in the Peoria area, allowing them to further expand the skills they have learned at Bradley, as well as help economic growth in Peoria.
This semester, the senate shifted its focus to understanding the student experience on campus.
“I think we got away from that a lot last year,” Ryan Dodd, senior computer science major and director of administration, said. “[We want] to get people back out into the community and really see what’s going on and figure out where those pain points are.”
The biggest issue to tackle here was communication.
Dodd questioned how to effectively communicate with both the student body and senators as a way to accurately represent students.
One way the senate combated this issue was by collaborating with the Office of Marketing Communications (OMC) to increase outreach to students.
“We have been getting out there, doing tabling events, supply drops and filming videos outside so that students can see there are actual people behind the [senate’s] name,” Corinne Schneiderman, sophomore organizational communications and English major and chairperson of public relations, said.
In February, the senate began advocacy tabling in Williams Dining Hall, where they asked students what they would improve or change on Bradley’s campus if they had a million dollars.
Some concerns students brought to the table included issues with dorms and dining services. Giving students this opportunity to voice their concerns allowed the senate to take action on these matters.
“I spoke with Nathan Thomas, and he said, ‘I’ve got to take this and forward it to different areas on campus that would benefit from this,’” Dodd said. “He was then able to take those concerns and meet with the Aramark staff and get them addressed. That was really helpful for him, and we want to continue to do this moving forward.”
The senate has also been working on filling university senate committees. So far, they have appointed a senior student to the curriculum and regulations subcommittee, which has been meeting with the strategic planning subcommittee to discuss the future of Bradley.
With this plan in mind, the senate is working collaboratively to figure out what academics may look like in the future, including subjects of campus facilities and technology in the classroom, such as usage of artificial intelligence and how it may impact degrees.
“This plan is really imperative, because it’s going to govern what Bradley does for the next five to 10 years,” Dodd said. “[In the past], a lot of the gripe was ‘where’s the strategic plan?’ Nobody really knew what the strategic plan was for where Bradley was going to be in the next few years. This committee has been working very diligently to figure that out.”
Ultimately, the senate is looking for as many voices as possible to get the job done.
“Our main priority is to develop initiatives to help improve the quality of life on campus, but we can’t do that without the input from the students. That means a lot to us,” Cuizon, Jr. said.
As the second half of the semester begins, the senate is encouraging anyone who wishes to truly make a difference on campus to run for a senator position or vote in their upcoming election.
“Believe it or not, those votes will impact the quality of life on campus,” Cuizon, Jr. said. “The student voice is a very powerful voice. In retrospect, absolutely, your voice matters.”
