Author: Sarah Corsa
Occidental’s student senators will soon become a fixture in the Green Bean, the campus coffee shop and popular hangout spot. Economics major and student senator Sid Saravat’s (sophomore) set up regular office hours in the Green Bean for the student representatives as part of his personal project. The goal for the project is to make the Occidental community more aware of the student government and what they can do to help the student body.
Two senators will be holding office hours in the Green Bean every Tuesday for two hours in the middle of the day to answer questions, take suggestions and hear complaints. They are also there to converse with their peers in an attempt to close the gap between students, the Associated Students of Occidental College (ASOC) and the administration.
Students can currently contact senators in their temporary offices in the trailers, but many students find this location out of the way or simply do not know about the new location. Although senators can be reached by email or through the weekly senate meetings that are open to all students, their presence in the Green Bean is an effort increase the ASOC’s visibility and transparency.
“A lot of people forget that we are that cushion between the students and the administration and we’re supposed to be that in between body [between students and administration],” ASOC president Margeau Valteau (senior) said.
The ASOC Senate hopes to clarify through these office hours that their jobs entail more than just allocating funding; they are the liaison between the students and the administration. The senators’ jobs are to do what students often cannot, such as navigate different channels for making a project happen or get answers for the student body on hot issues. Last year, senators organized a general assembly meeting with admissions and the administration based on student confusion about rising tuition rates.
“A lot of times I believe student frustration comes from a sort of miscommunication between administration and students. We believe we can solve a lot of that frustration.” Saravat said. ”The whole goal was to create an informal space where students are comfortable voicing their opinion, voicing their concerns, about the administration, campus, student life, anything at all, anything that we can help them with.”
The popularity of the Green Bean will give the senators a launching point for their program. ASOC is collaborating with the baristas on duty to inform customers when the senators have office hours. Signs and word of mouth will be the other main forms of advertisement.
“As this is the first time, we want to kind of test it out and see if its something that maybe other clubs can do,” Thomas Heyl (senior), programming and customer experience manager of the Green Bean, said.
The first office hours session will take place on the first Tuesday of November.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
