About Student Senate

Goals of Student Senate

• Represent the student body to the faculty, staff, administration, and trustees of Cornell College.
• Communicate student opinion on institutional policy to the faculty, staff, administration, and trustees.
• Approve new student organizations and clubs.
• Advise and monitor current student organizations.
• Allocate the student activity fee.
• Approve the use of student activity fee by student organizations.

Organization of Student Senate

Student Senate is organized into an Executive Board and a General Assembly. The Executive Board is composed of committee chairs who lead committees of Senate members. The General Assembly is composed of multiple class representatives who serve on standing committees and vote on legislation at General Assembly meetings. The Student Body President and Student Body Vice President are also members of the Executive Board who lead meetings and hold representative positions of the entire student body. 

Executive Board

The Executive Board is composed of the Student Body President, Student Body Vice President, Chair of Academic Affairs, Chair of Appropriations, Chair of Organizations, Chair of Student Life, Office Manager, and two Staff Advisors. Each of these positions is elected by the entire student body excluding Office Manager and Staff Advisors. The Executive Board is led by the Student Body President and focuses on solving problems brought up by the student body as well as representing the student body to many campus committees. In addition, each chair leads a separate committee composed of members of the General Assembly. 

The major purposes of the Executive Board are as follows:

• Oversee the work of committees.
• Consider items for the General Assembly agenda.
• Ensure the transparency of Student Senate.

General Assembly

The General Assembly is composed of 16 members who are called Class Senators. There are four Class Senators from each class (first-year, sophomore, junior, senior) who are elected at the beginning of the year by members of that class. One Class Senator from each year must serve on a Student Senate committee of their choice. The Class Senator who receives the most votes at the beginning of the year will be designated as Class President. The Class President is required to report updates at each General Assembly meeting and communicate with their other Class Senators to work on projects as needed for the student body. 

The major purposes of the General Assembly are as follows:

• Bring forward concerns of the student body.
• Vote to approve and fund official student organizations.
• Communicate with the student body on important matters.

Standing Committees

Each of the Chairs of the Executive Board is responsible for leading one of the Standing Committees. These committees meet multiple times a block to consider items brought before Student Senate and come up with executable solutions for them.

The Standing Committees of Student Senate are as follows:

• Academic Affairs
• Appropriations
• Organizations
• Student Life

Current Representatives

Class Representatives

Documents

Documentation is extremely important to Student Senate. The following are important documents that are accessible for all students:

• Constitution
• By-Laws
• General Assembly Minutes
• Ledger of Requests and Expenditures of the Student Activity Fund
  • For this ledger please contact the Chair of Appropriations with your Cornell email account.

If you have any questions about Student Senate please contact your class representative or the Student Body President at student_senate@cornellcollege.edu.