The undergraduate Student Association (SA) Senate voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to create a committee focused on issues affecting the student body.
The formation of the Advocacy Committee marks the Senate’s first progress toward student advocacy this academic year, and ends a brief power struggle that killed an earlier attempt to form such a committee.
The committee has no set agenda or structure, and a first meeting time hasn’t been set. Like all SA Senate committees, the Advocacy Committee is advisory and has no decision-making power of its own — but unlike other committees, the Advocacy Committee is only authorized through the end of the spring semester.
SA Senate Chairperson Gavin Krauciunas will head the committee until it meets to elect a permanent chair. He says the committee’s 12 members will set its course, but that issues surrounding on-campus parking and UB’s dining services are likely to be on the table.
SA Student Affairs Department director Tyler Herman, who is a committee member, said that he plans to focus on issues that his department has been working on, but that the committee will be “mostly senators bringing in their concerns.”
The Advocacy Committee’s successful formation comes a week after an earlier attempt failed. At the time, Krauciunas and Herman introduced nearly identical competing resolutions to create the committee, with each naming himself committee chair.
This week’s successful resolution, introduced by Krauciunas and Senator Kayla Yan, is identical in wording to both of last week’s, except that it does not name a chairperson.
Herman says he will run for chair when the committee meets, and Krauciunas says he is weighing a run.
Yan, who is also a committee member, was among the most vocal senators in advocacy matters last year, clashing at times with SA leadership. She says she expects the new committee will make a difference.
“I have high hopes for it,” Yan said. “I’m hoping that it’ll come together at the end of the spring.”
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor and can be reached at mylien.lai@ubspectrum.com
Mylien Lai is the senior news editor at The Spectrum. Outside of getting lost in Buffalo, she enjoys practicing the piano and being a bean plant mom. She can be found at @my_my_my_myliennnn on Instagram.
