The Seventh Undergraduate Senate

The Legislative Agenda

TO: The Undergraduate Senate
FROM: Brett T. Atanasio, Speaker of the Undergraduate Senate
DATE: October 8th, 2011
RE: Legislative Agenda of the 7th Undergraduate Senate

To my friends and colleagues,

As we set our sights to the future of the Undergraduate Senate, now in its Seventh Session, I would like to dig up a relic of the Senate’s past, the Legislative Agenda. The Legislative Agenda was a tool used by the earlier Senate’s to focus the collective energies of the Senate towards a set of common goals for the session. The Legislative Agenda would then be carried out by the arms of the Senate, the Standing Committees.

As I have said before I envision the Seventh Undergraduate Senate as the Senate that went big, that tackled the issues that some would say are too big for Senate to conquer. I know that this can be done, because I have seen firsthand what can be accomplished if the Senate is willing to fight for it.

Additionally, I hope to, in my time as Speaker, revitalize the Committees of the Undergraduate Senate. For too long the Standing Committees of the Senate have been treated as rubber stamps for legislation, as conveyor belts that process legislation only when the legislative switch is flipped. This cannot continue; such a state of affairs for committees ignores the tremendous power of the committees and squanders the untapped potential that can be unleashed when the minds of dedicated Senators come together to tackle the issues that affect the students of this University.

Read the entire Legislative Agenda