Student government president and faculty senate chairwoman discuss the importance of local government.
By E. Milimoh
Adrian Rosales previously known for his position as student senator for the commission of finance has been recently elected to the position of student body president.
Inspired by its previous president Luke Katz, Adrian’s intentions and desire to run for this position comes from both his own experience as a college student and from his experience as a student senator.
“It’s not just your regular high school student government where you don’t have too many responsibilities. This is real deal stuff, you know, real money coming forms students who are paying tuition,” said Rosales. “Making decisions that affect the whole campus, not just certain groups and it really grows your sense of leadership.”
Dr. Susan Smith-Peter, chairwoman of the faculty senate at the college, has also provided some insight on the college and its operations when it comes to how members of its community come together to manage and contribute to its success.
One of the main objectives of the faculty senate is to manage and hold governance over how CSI’s curriculum is taught, which allows professors to have that control over their subject material vs the administration having that control solely. On subjects varying from the switch to bright space from blackboard to decision on creation of more asynchronous classes.
“One of the big things that is really helpful with the faculty senate is just making sure that the people that are most active in teaching have a voice about the teaching,” said Dr. Smith-Peter.
Most of these choices are dealt with by the committee they are delegated to such as the curriculum committee, who presents their concerns and ideas for how the curriculum should be changed or improved. One big adjustment that was made to the operations of the faculty senate in order to make it more accessible is the incorporation of virtual meetings.
This was done to promote the involvement of more faculty to not only have an opportunity to speak on their concerns regarding their roles as educators but to keep professors informed on what is being discussed and pushed forward by their fellow educators.
“I think faculty governance is absolutely essential,” said Dr. Smith-Peters
It is through the creation of these councils and committees delegated to find solutions to each newly presented problem for the faculty senate; to keep teachers in control of their areas of study and how they are taught.
The transport task force is another example of a committee that was created to respond to the concerns of college patrons when it comes to their commutes, which Rosales also spoke about.
The transportation task force has been tasked with the job of figuring out how to deal with the ever-present issue of transportation for commuter students. An issue the banner has discussed in length on our Newscast “Breaking the Banner” in addition to an article published titled, The MTA is failing Staten Island
“We hope to develop a new task force with real students and want to be active in that to get the overall consensus concern..,” said Rosales. “as well as actively participate in discussions with other parties such as the MTA.”
Through the creation of this task force, our student government and the CSI Administration have taken it upon themselves to combat this issue by allowing those that feel most affected or the most strongly affected by these issues. That has come together to fix this problem for the student body.
“Students had to leave their night class early just so they could catch the last bus out of campus and That always sticks in my life,” said Rosales. “that students cannot stay for the whole class time because they have to get home.”
With the support of the student government and the outreach of our faculty senate to the CSI Community, actively working to generate solutions to the issues we face, highlights the importance of local and campus governance at CSI, allowing us the opportunity to voice our needs and come together to make change at this college for the betterment of all that frequent it.
“We could work more closely than we do, there’s no barrier to working more closely,” said Dr. Smith-Peter. “I think it’s more invaluable to get the input of students…”
