MSSA seat becomes vacant

Off-campus senator position available for interested students

The Minnesota State Student Association is the student government body at Minnesota State University, Mankato that represents the interests of all students at university, community, state and federal levels.

The MSSA acts as an excellent resource for students by solving their problems, improving services provided to students and acting as a voice to the entire student body.

The president of the 85th senate of MSSA, AbdulRahmane Abdul-Aziz, states that his main role is to facilitate the daily operations of the MSSA.

“Essentially, my job is to coordinate day to day operations and provide a vision for the next task to moving forward,” Abdul-Aziz says.

The MSSA provides numerous services to students such as the Maverick Textbook Reserve where students can access textbooks for various courses over a given period. The MSSA also has student attorneys that provide free legal advice to students and can answer any mind boggling legal question a student may have. The MSSA includes 15 College senators, eight off-Campus senators at large, five Residential Life senators at large and two at large senators.

Currently, in the Student Senate, there is an off-campus senator position that is vacant.

“A vacancy in the Student Senate occurs when a senator resigns or is faced with unforeseen circumstance forcing them to leave their position,” Abdul-Aziz said. “The vacancy is then announced, and thereafter the vacancy is held within a two-week timeline.”

The off-campus senator essentially represents students off campus and acts as a voice for his constituency, which encompasses everything off campus to the Senate. The only requirement for the position is that a student is required to live off campus.

Abdul-Aziz states that the vacancy was announced during the first week of the spring semester and this coming week students who want to run for the off-campus senator position can come to the senate meeting to vie for the position. The Senate will then internally decide on who they want to elect for the position. The Senate meets every Wednesday at 4 p.m. in CSU 238 in the Centennial Student Union throughout the academic year.

“There are a couple things that could happen this coming week,” Abdul-Aziz said. “The Senate could either vote in a senator, or not vote in a senator, thus passing a vote of no confidence and choose to keep the position vacant.”

MNSU always gives its students top priority, thus an off-campus senator would be able to not only voice the concerns of his or her fellow students, but also find plausible, efficient and ideal solutions to deal with frustrating issues facing students off-campus.

“Once a credible student environment is created, more students will be willing to come pursue their higher education at MSU, Mankato and in the long-run, a productive community is solidified. This is what student advocates strive to do,” Abdul-Aziz said.

Abdul-Aziz states that one of the main challenges of the position is that it is a time commitment, though if one possesses the initiative set forth to create change, then everything will fall into place.

The MSSA has quite a substantial impact at MNSU and does anything in its power to both accommodate students as well as make their college experience more comfortable. Joining the Student Senate would mean being part of a group of students that aim to make a unique mark on the lives of their peers.

“The ability to represent the student body and better the college experience is what being a student advocate is about and that is what is done at the MSSA,” Abdul-Aziz states.