Being on the Arts & Sciences student senate means more than just making a list of issues students feel need to be worked on. It means improving the university and enabling students to voice their concerns, specifically within the College of Arts & Sciences.
Arts & Sciences senior Joel Eastes said that the Arts & Sciences student senate consists of five executives as well as four other committees that help focus on areas that will address specific needs such as Creighton’s online systems.
The College of Arts & Sciences also has a faculty senate that helps facilitate the concerns and needs of Creighton faculty members
and staff.
“The Arts & Sciences student senate acts as the voice of all the Arts & Sciences students by working with the faculty and the dean’s office to address concerns and bring about change,” Eastes said.
The Arts & Sciences student senate is responsible for hosting a number of events, —including the Dean’s fireside chat, a blood drive, a student panel discussion with grad students and professors and the academic dinner.
“This year some of the issues that we are focusing on … are things such as updating the research website, creating a better online syllabus and updating the Core,” Eastes said.
For Arts & Sciences junior Shweta Goswami, being part of a form of student government has always been an area of interest for her. Having moved around during her high school years, Goswami made it a goal to become an active part of the Arts & Sciences student senate at Creighton.
“I decided to apply to be on the student senate in September of my freshman year,” Goswami said. “Now I’m a part of the Core Review Task Force.”
One of the biggest challenges that Creighton students face with curriculum is the amount of Core requirements needed to graduate.
Having so many requirements takes up a lot of credit hours that students could be using toward their respective majors.
Most importantly, many people feel the Core is in need of an update. According to Eastes, the last time the Core was reviewed was almost 20 years ago — and that time it was done so without the input from any of Creighton’s Arts & Sciences students. It is clear that a lot of things have changed in the realm of educational needs since then.
Goswami explained that there are many logistics in reviewing the Core because it’s a committee under the faculty senate, so those involved communicate often.
“The point of the Core Task Force is to try and figure out the best methods to revamp the Core,” Goswami said. “Right now we are working on passing the new Core learning objectives. Those will be passed Oct. 4 to the faculty senate.”
Spending her summer in Omaha, Goswami was able to be a part of the sub-task force that meet during summer vacation.
“I was in Omaha, so it was convenient for me to be a part of it, and I already knew what the process was like and the objectives the task force was trying to accomplish,” Goswami said.
One of the main things that the sub-task force did was look at the different Core systems of several other universities. The sub-task force decided on what its members liked and disliked about each system, what parts of the systems they looked at would best fit Creighton’s needs and what could be implemented into Creighton’s existing Core system.
“We also looked at what parts of the Core classes can be changed and what learning objectives can be tweaked,” Goswami said.
This year a new face was brought to the Core Review Task Force. Arts & Sciences sophomore Amanda Brandt was recently put on the committee and will serve as a part of the task force until she graduates.
“I like the fact that there is a lot of diversity as far as majors go for the people who are on the committee,” Brandt said. “That aspect speaks volumes as to how well-rounded this will turn out and it shows that this process is being taken very seriously and that every aspect of revision is being taken into consideration.”
Brandt said that the Core Review Task Force is looking at changing both the classes needed to satisfy the Core and the learning objectives within the classroom.
“We started out rewriting the learning objectives, because without them we can’t move forward with changing the classes,” Brandt said.
One of the biggest issues of this process will be deciding whether the task force has the faculty and the man-power to implement a whole new system if necessary.
Brandt said that it’s clear that the faculty is there primarily for the students because they are so open to student input and have a desire to hear what students have to say.
“I’ve only been to a couple of meetings but I have great respect for the faculty members that are a part of it,” Brandt said. “They are all very knowledgeable and genuinely care about the students.”