u Student body president suggests improving
By LAURA ROMPF
Assistant News Editor
Student government can do much more to improve life at the University, said Brian O'Donoghue, student body president, as he addressed the Student Senate last night with his State of the Student Union address.
"For the past two years I have sat where you sit now and have heard every student body president make the same statement year after year. They all have said: `The State of the Student Union is strong,'" O'Donoghue said. "Well, I guess I am going to have to break with that tradition tonight. I will not stand here and say that everything is perfect."
While improvements are necessary, many people involved with student government have the ability to make changes, O'Donoghue said.
"This is not to say that the student union is in poor condition; for it is not. I personally have the utmost confidence in every single person who has taken a position of service to the students. They, and you, can do remarkable things," O'Donoghue said.
O'Donoghue stressed two major points of his platform: building community and communicating with the students themselves.
"We must, as student leaders, build community over all diversity — be they economic, religious or multicultural — while still rejoicing in the individual gifts God has granted to each of us," he said.
"We need to reach beyond the walls of LaFortune to educate students to all the opportunities which we work so hard to provide them with. If we accomplish something worthy to be remembered and no one knows about it, did we ever accomplish it at all?" O'Donoghue added.
He also encouraged the senate to remember that their main purpose is to serve the students.
"And most importantly, we must never forget to serve the students. They are, after all, why we are here," he said.
O'Donoghue concluded his speech with a contradiction to his opening.
"As so, I look around this room, and I realize maybe those past presidents were right: the state of the student union is strong, and its future and so much more are in your hands," he said.
In other senate news:
u The senate unanimously approved the 2000—2001 Club Coordination Council budget.
u John Osborn, Mark Donahey and Mike Heinz presented the executive summary for the Board of Trustees report calling for more student representation in University governance.
u The senate approved possible topics for next fall's Board of Trustees report. Topics are tuition and financial aid with the possibility of merit based scholarships; the rector endowment fund that will aid students with various expenses; more social space and the possibility of a new student center; and finally, any topic the Board of Trustees suggests to the students.
u The senate unanimously approved two amendments and two bylaws to the constitution. The bylaws added a steering committee and designated chairpersons to committees while the amendments removed a duplicate sentence and changed the allotted committee formation period.
All News Stories for Thursday, April 27, 2000
