Last Wednesday, the Daily’s Editorial Board suggested that the Senate of the Government of the Student Body may not be living up to its responsibilities. As one of the senators representing the students of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, I’m writing today to give you my side of the issue.

Now, I won’t try to explain away the lack of legislation, because it is a fact that this semester has had a slow start and the lack of legislation has been alarming to those within the senate, too. Though while I share in the concern, I’m not giving up hope for this senate because it’s not as if the Senators have just been shrugging off responsibilities. During the summer and the first few weeks of class, your senators have been meeting with student organizations and serving on university and/or city committees, and thus have been working to improve the Iowa State experience both for present and future students of Iowa State.

For those of you who have never made it to the closing announcements portion of a GSB Senate session, often I ask the senate what has been dubbed “the Question of the Week” by some. At the end of the spring semester this past May, I asked: “What is the purpose of GSB, and what can the senate be doing to improve the student experience at Iowa State?”

Since then, on top of the usual responsibilities of GSB, senators have been answering that, discussing some new ideas for making Iowa State better (I claim no responsibility; it’s a happy coincidence). Several of these discussions have begun to take form as ad-hoc committees, such as a library funding committee and a sustainability committee. And very importantly, along with my colleagues on senate, we’ve taken the first steps towards making GSB more transparent and accountable to students via legislation that was introduced last Wednesday.

Lastly, I’d like to point out that your representatives on GSB are merely human. We aren’t all-knowing and all-seeing members of the ISU community. We’re students here too. We go to class, have homework, work at jobs, are members of clubs or organizations, cheer on the Cyclones and enjoy our academic breaks as much as any other student does.

I’d love to have an agenda full of legislation that benefits students, improves their lives and allocates money to student organizations. But that also takes people approaching us with ideas of how to achieve those things. We can’t do it alone. Yes, we’re just like you, but you’ve given us the responsibility of doing our best to represent you, so help us out.

If you’ve got an idea, need funding or know of something that needs to change at Iowa State, let me know by emailing me at [email protected] and I’ll get you pointed in the right direction. We meet at 7 p.m. Wednesdays in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union. Our meetings are always open, so you can let us know your thoughts then, too. Senators also have office hours on and off campus, and most (if not all) of us are willing to go out of our way to hear your thoughts, ideas and concerns if those hours aren’t convenient.

If you don’t bring it to us, and we don’t succeed in connecting with you, then we’ll continue to face the same problems that GSB has had for years. Help us help you, Iowa State.