The Associated Students of the University of San Francisco
(ASUSF) have united again this semester with an optimistic outlook on the
2016-2017 school year.
“I’m very hopeful for this year,” said Shaya Kara, student
body president. According to Kara, there has been a revamp of the senate, which
involved decreasing the number of members. 28 senators used to be a part of the
ASUSF team before the number was cut to 11 this year, in order for the senate
to have more “accountability, cohesion and effectiveness,” explained Kara.
The senate, according to Kara, has numerous project plans this year such as the expansion of the Public Safety night program, the renaming of Phelan Hall, and voter engagement to name a few.
However, engagement of the student body is an obstacle the
senate is focusing on tackling, specifically for this election year. “We really
believe that it’s in every university’s responsibility to encourage their
students to register to vote,” Kara said. However, she explained how it isn’t
uncommon for young people to not participate in politics. To combat this Kara said
that she and other Jesuit student body presidents have teamed up to “[push]
forward voter engagement on our campuses.”
The seriousness and determination found in the USF senate shows
in their most recent ASUSF senate meeting which according to Kara, had the
attendance of the San Francisco Department of Elections, who were there to
“train all the senators on how to register other people to vote.”
“I’m excited to see
the empowerment of the student body and to see them feel they really have a
medium to create affective change and advocate for their issues on campus,” said
Kara, explaining how the senate’s new accessibility will help shape and
encourage the students’ empowerment. “I’m excited to see students, general
students, trust there’s a system in place to help aid them through any struggle
they find on campus,” said Kara.
Vice President of finance Henna Samtani also wants the students
of USF to be more aware of the power they possess. “I think sometimes, we as
students think that we don’t have power, but I think that’s what makes USF so
unique. I’ve never really seen an organization have the ability to go out and
to make such significant changes,” Samtani said.
Samtani explained this year there was a fee increase in the
students’ bills—this being for the “student activity fee.” However, Samtani
assures the positive impact it will bring to students and how it will be an
advantage for the student body: “our initial reasoning behind [raising the fee]
was to support the growing number of students that were coming to USF, and to
support the organizations and encourage participation.” Samtani explained how
she feels when students move off-campus, there is the potential for them to
become “disengaged in student life.”
Samtani welcomes students openly: “we have the funds to support
you,” she said, “we’re not trying to misallocate funds and throw money out but
I think we’re definitely trying to support as many students and as many
organizations as we can, and we definitely encourage people to come forward and
to talk to us about their ideas and their concerns, not only to [finance] but
to the senate as a whole.”
She believes the smaller group that is now the ASUSF senate “will
be able to support that vision and those ideas.”
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