Hello Calvin College,

As the 2012-13 executive team, Yeaji Choi and I thank you for choosing Calvin College. We want to encourage you to challenge us not to be content with simple answers to tough questions, and to think outside the box for the vision we hope to bring to this year.

Last year was an exciting one for student senate. Trying out a new organizational structure highlighted some of the weaknesses of our organization and some of the strengths. This year Yeaji and I hope to invest in the strengths of senate, and learn from past mistakes. Last year, senate hosted the most successful masquerade dance in recent history, provided an opportunity for over 200 students to enjoy a meal with a professor through the Take-Your-Prof-Out program, created “Reig-Knight,” a monthly worship service that saw attendance from 300 to 500 people, launched the community bike club with a membership impact of about 150 students and partnered with many other student organizations and students in an attempt to empower students at Calvin College.

This year, Yeaji and I bring a strong vision to student senate built on our experience of what senate is, and our understanding of what senate could be. We envision a student senate that students know about, a senate whose influence extends past the commons annex and the administrative halls of Calvin into the dorms, into Knollcrest East and into the neighborhoods of the students of Calvin College. We want to represent you, but in order to do that, we need you to be willing to represent yourselves, not only to us, but to President Le Roy, who is excited to get to know normal, everyday students at Calvin like you. We want you to represent yourselves on the governance committees where professors and administrators are ready to hear your perspectives. Represent yourselves so that you can own your own experience here. Don’t just float through Calvin. Get involved, own these four years; they’ll never happen again.

That’s what student senate wants for each and every one of you. Wherever you want to get involved, in whatever your passions are, senate can help you get plugged into the situations where you can take control of your own experience. This year, we hope to launch the bike club version 2.0 and we are currently working on launching a Calvin discount program to give you great deals at local fast food restaurants, along with other discounts. We also plan on throwing the biggest Halloween masquerade party, with the most food ever seen at a senate event. This isn’t because we are about bikes, discounts at restaurants, or food hand-outs. It’s because without events that raise our profile, that make students aware of us, we couldn’t do what senate is all about.

As the representative voice of the student body, we seek to link students and college decision-makers, engage their perspectives, and pursue positive change with integrity. Whether you are passionate about what’s going on with Burma, want to try and encourage the student body to take a break from their phones, want to have dinner with a dean, or want to send 200 Christmas boxes to children in Africa, senate is ready to support you. Maybe your interests don’t lie in some big event or club, maybe you just care deeply about gender equity and would like to see Calvin improve in this area, or maybe you want Calvin to improve on environmental stewardship. Calvin needs your insights and opinions and student senate has opportunities that will place you in a position where your vision for Calvin’s future can have real impact.

But a team of 13 people can’t do this alone. We can’t even talk to all 3,900 of you. We need you to take the first step into the community of students at Calvin. It is a significant community of people who care about Calvin and the direction it moves, and are working alongside the administration and faculty of the college to make it into the place it strives to be.

Thank you,

Yeaji Choi, student body president
Josiah Sinclair, executive vice president

If you are interested in what student senate does, have ideas for how we can hone our vision for next year, or would like to be on a governance committee, please email [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.