The ASUW Student Senate speaks for the students. It is the administrative counterpart to the Board of Directors and was established in 1994 as an outgrowth of the previous student assembly, according to the Web site.

“Student Senate is the official opinion-making body of ASUW, whose purpose is to establish and affirm student opinion, whether they be from local campus issues to large global issues,” Senate Chair Jon Solomon said.

While this sounds more like a bureaucracy than an active part of student government, Solomon said that codifying student opinion is helpful when addressing a UW administrator or Washington state legislator, because ASUW is supposed to represent the entire student body.

“[The Senate] allows and enhances student voice,” he said.

The Student Senate holds weekly meetings to debate, discuss, and pass or reject legislation on a wide range of topics.

“Legislation might talk about the HUB renovation, whether fair trade coffee should be used on campus, or about divestment from Darfur or war in the Middle East — everything from local campus to large global issues,” Solomon said.

Senate is also responsible for helping the Office of Governmental Relations to establish the legislative agenda every year — yhe Office of Governmental Relations will be addressed in Wednesday’s feature.

As for the Senate’s work to date, Solomon said it has been a light year.

“One proposal concerning having an extra-curricular transcript for students passed the legislative agenda,” he said.

Senate has also been responsible in the past for changing academic requirements, said Vice Chair Lydia Bylsma.

“We’ve done a lot in the past about GPA requirements, teacher responsibilities and tech support,” she said.

Solomon’s personal goal as chair for the year is to get as many people involved as possible.

“It’s time for a new generation of senators, and making sure a wider range of voices are heard,” he said.

To a student attending Senate for the first time, the meeting procedure may be confusing, daunting or exhausting — or all three — but he or she will quickly become familiar with terms like motion, point of order and quorum.

“When I came in as a freshman I had very little experience with the formal meeting methods,” Solomon said.

However, after a quarter of listening and asking questions, he said he grew accustomed to the vocabulary and procedure.

The largest flow of new senators occurs at the beginning of the school year, due to ASUW advertising.

“Most of the senators get involved through word-of-mouth or through [a] living-group situation,” Solomon said. “At the beginning of year all of the residence halls push for involvement.”

Bylsma added that the Senate “gives students a chance to make the administration listen, to make the state listen and students listen.”

The legitimacy of the Senate as the representative voice of students, however, is compromised by a lack of awareness of the general student body.

“I have no idea, really — I have no idea what the Senate does,” senior Ryan Timmons said. “I have a few friends who are in the Senate, but I don’t know what they do.”

The vice chair acts as a liaison between the BOD and the student Senate. While both entities make up the administrative portion of the ASUW, communication between the two in the past has been “shaky.” However, according to Bylsma, that has changed.

“This year I think the BOD and Senate have a strong relationship; many of the BOD members have served on Senate before and they have been very, very good at listening to Senate thoughts,” she said.

There are 45 senator seats for both RHSA and IFC/Panhellenic, and 56 seats for commuters, not all of which have been claimed this year.

“There are still open seats if [students] want to become a senator,” Bylsma said.

Reach reporter Sonia McBride at features@dailyuw.com.