Stu­dent Coun­cil Un­der­goes Changes

MISHAWAKA—The Stu­dent Coun­cil serves Bethel’s com­mu­nity in a va­ri­ety of ways; from plan­ning events, to choos­ing the se­nior gift, to ap­peal­ing for changes to poli­cies, they serve as voices and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the stu­dent body. This year the coun­cil looks a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. 

Af­ter sev­eral years of serv­ing as fac­ulty ad­vi­sor for the Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil, As­so­ci­ate Pro­fes­sor of His­tory, Dave Schmidt, Ph.D., chose to re­sign this po­si­tion. Fill­ing this slot is the Di­rec­tor of the Cen­ter for Aca­d­e­mic Suc­cess, Rachel Kennedy, who served as fac­ulty ad­vi­sor for the Up­per­class Coun­cil last year. Lori Stutz­man, Ph.D., as­sis­tant pro­fes­sor of busi­ness, re­mains as the fac­ulty ad­vi­sor for the Un­der­class Coun­cil, and com­ing on board for the first time is De­part­ment Chair of Ed­u­ca­tion, James Ben­net, Ed.D., who will be fill­ing Kennedy’s pre­vi­ous role as fac­ulty ad­vi­sor for the Up­per­class Coun­cil. 

Due to COVID-19, the Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil elec­tions were not able to take place in the spring, so the fall sched­ule for Stu­dent Coun­cil has been slightly de­layed. 

“We’re hav­ing two elec­tions this fall in very short suc­ces­sion,” said Kennedy. “The rea­son we de­cided to have two elec­tions rather than one elec­tion is be­cause, the peo­ple who are not elected to the Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil, we wanted them to also have the op­por­tu­nity to run for Up­per­class Coun­cil or Un­der­class Coun­cil.” 

The Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil elec­tion took place on Fri­day, Aug. 28; make sure to watch for the win­ners to be an­nounced soon. 

The Up­per­class Coun­cil and Un­der­class Coun­cil elec­tions will take place on Fri­day, Sept. 11; ap­pli­ca­tions be­came avail­able Mon­day, Aug. 31, and are due by Fri­day, Sept. 4.  

The Stu­dent Coun­cil has un­der­gone other changes as well due to pro­pos­als made by last year’s Stu­dent Coun­cil. First, the Up­per­class and Un­der­class Coun­cils have been con­densed. Rather than hav­ing both a sec­re­tary and trea­surer for the coun­cils, these two roles have been com­bined into one, bring the coun­cils down from four mem­bers each to three mem­bers each. 

“Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil is still four of­fi­cers... but the Un­der­class and Up­per­class Coun­cils were con­densed to three of­fi­cers each,” Kennedy said. 

Last year’s Stu­dent Coun­cil also elim­i­nated dorm rep­re­sen­ta­tives and added three com­mit­tee chairs: one from Spir­i­tual Life, one from Cam­pus Ac­tiv­i­ties and one to rep­re­sent com­muters. These changes were all rat­i­fied by the fac­ulty in Au­gust. 

“That ba­si­cally con­denses Stu­dent Coun­cil down to 13 mem­bers,” Kennedy said. 

As for plans for the year, Kennedy said that re­ally de­pends on who is elected. 

“It’s about see­ing which of­fi­cers are elected each year, what are they pas­sion­ate about, what do they want to ac­com­plish, what role do they see Stu­dent Coun­cil hav­ing, and what of their ideas are fea­si­ble,” Kennedy said.  

Watch for posters to ap­pear around cam­pus to learn who’s run­ning for the Up­per­class and Un­der­class Coun­cils and re­mem­ber to vote on Sept. 11, by log­ging into your my.bethelu­ni­ver­sity.edu ac­count.