The new executive staff includes President Megan Handle, Vice President Isaac Davis, Treasurer Reagan Farmer, Chief of Staff Carson Sarver and Public Relations Director Kylie Christa.
The former staff was successful in rebranding Senate's image and increasing membership, and the new staff hopes to continue to include new members in the Student Senate this year, Farmer said.
Handle said she plans to take advantage of a few strategies to increase membership this year, which include attending different student organization fairs, such as the multicultural and student expo. Senate will also be doing some tabling outside of Baker.
“All of the places where we can get our name out, and a lot of students will be,” Handle said. “I'm speaking at the first-year convocation, which I'm really excited about. That's something Senate presidents have done in the past that we're doing again this year.”
One strategy Christa said she would like to continue in her role as public relations director is to ensure students receive the most up-to-date information about Student Senate.
“I want to offer professional headshots for all of our members, " Christa said. “I can update our website with the pictures, so everyone can put a name with a face, so that way we know who is who and in what position.”
Christa said she wants to engage in one-on-one outreach to help students also know where the Student Senate offices are and to feel they can share their concerns with all members of Student Senate.
“I would like to do more one-on-one outreach, for office hours, I want to make sure that people know that we're there when we're there, where our offices are, that way they can come to us,” Christa said.
Farmer said she is also hoping to see more students stop by the Student Senate offices, located in Baker Center.
“We're hoping to have a lot of students stopped by so we can talk to them about what senate is and what we do,” Farmer said. “We are open to absolutely anything because that's our job to listen to what the students need.”
Farmer said she also intends to collaborate more with other student organizations through her role as treasurer.
“I'd love to work with a lot of student orgs to make sure that they're using our funding in the best way possible for them to get the most use out of it,” Farmer said. “So that's a super big goal, just more collaboration between student organizations, which I'm hoping for through my role.”
With OU selecting a new President this year, Senate has already been working closely with President Gonzalez and her administration to further collaborate during the school year.
“Each semester my executive team is going to meet with her and possibly some members of her team to talk about what we're all working on and things like that to stay connected, which I think is really cool,” Handle said.
Along with increasing membership, Handle said she is hopeful to pass pieces of legislation that will expand on current projects the Senate started, like her period product campaign, and to help improve student mental health.
One thing she said she hopes to implement is what other universities call a dead week, which would occur before the week of finals.
“We're gonna call it a study week or something like that, but basically, the week in front of finals, professors would not be allowed to assign new assignments,” Handle said.
Handle said she feels like Student Senate is an underutilized resource students have on campus.
“A goal not only for me but in general, is to make sure that people know who we are, what we are, what we do and why we do it,” Christa said.