Has anyone ever been part of the student government at their college or university?

[DSS94]

I'm not that introverted, but in my experience you don't have to debate if you don't want to, and there's barely ever a public audience for the meetings. I wouldn't recommend just sitting in chamber like a bump on a log, that wouldn't be of any benefit to you, but you are able to get out of your comfort zone at your own pace.

Public speeches won't work too well in a large college unless you have a campus radio/TV station willing to broadcast them. Most people are far too busy and far too apathetic to actually go to such a thing. Posters and banners are one way to go.

[K-Luv]

I was a member of student government for the two years I spent at my first college. We were a little bit different than other student governments in that we were the Student Senate, not the more common SGA, and instead of class presidents we had a single president and a single vice president (and secretary, treasurer, etc.) that represented the entire student body with senators acting as the student body representatives. Unlike the officer positions, senators were not elected, yet, required a minimum of 25 signatures (endorsements) from the student body (fellow students).

We had no real power other than to dole out funding (from a rather large pool) to clubs and organizations, approve/deny new clubs, and organize a few of our own events such as a Halloween dance, student "fun day", bringing bands/comedians to campus, etc. There was something about all clubs having one member in the Student Senate, and the majority of senators where representatives of other clubs, but most clubs did not participate. As you might imagine, those clubs who had representation in the Student Senate got the most funding and/or had 100% of their funding requests met 100%.

What ever remained in the budget had to spent...on anything. Otherwise our funding request for the upcoming year may be lowered as we did not demonstrate a need for the entire amount.

I spent my first year as a senator, then my second as vice president, and, as part of that duty I was also required to sit on the Student Welfare and Retention Committee. My experience with student government was pretty much on par with what dayton sux wrote and I too learned that many college-wide decisions were made through "inner circles".

Originally Posted by Jonathanp219

You mentioned in the first post that you're a shy guy. Did you personally have to do a lot of talking at the --im assuming-- weekly meetings? Did you have to engage in public debates with your political opponents? What are some of the actions you had take to get your message out to the student body, and how did that work with your introverted personality??

At weekly meetings, yes, in particular when I was vp and we were going through official business. Many senators sat quite, though.

There were no public debates. Everyone who wanted to run for an officer position presented their case behind closed, but open-to-the-public, doors at a specific meeting. Most of our ideas were presented through posters/flyers, the student-run radio show[s], and the student-run newspaper. Also through what-ever activity the Student Senate sponsored.

Originally Posted by Ag77845

I was hardly aware of its existence.

Ah, yeah. I would hazard a guess that most students would feel the same.

[Uplander]

At the Big 10 school I know a bit about there are a lot of leadership opportunities outside of a narrowly defined student government. Student Athletic Board, Student Activities Board, Union Board, Dance Marathon Committee are a few and there are a great many other clubs. The ones I listed have different missions, but all would be great leadership opportunities. The Dance Marathon may not sound like an important activity, but last fall the event raised over $2 million dollars for a children's hospital.