Leadership is one of the most emphasized values at Lake Forest College, and one of the ways many students chose to get involved and develop leadership skills is through Student Government. As a student-led or-ganization with Aldo Guzman as a faculty supervisor, the Student Government oversees many aspects of the campus. These include but are not limited to the approval of new of clubs and organizations on campus, as well as the management of their budget and discretionary funds. Such organizations and clubs are the ones that host events throughout the academic year, such as Winter For-mal, Times Talks, Open Forum, etc.
One of the goals of Student Gov-ernment is to have the voices of stu-dents heard and promote more cam-pus involvement. To do that, there are senators of different categories to represent each group of students.
There are four Class Senators for each class year and one Hall Senator for each residence hall. There are also different commit-tees, and each Senator is required to be a part of at least one. Exam-ples of committees are the Stu-dent-Athlete Advisory Committee and the College Life Committee.
Another example is the Clubs and Organizations Committee (COC), which oversees different aspects of clubs and organizations. If a club wants to officially become part of the student community, they first have to go through COC to get approved.
Additionally, Student Gov-ernment has a main execu-tive board, which is made up of the President, Vice Presi-dent, Treasurer, and Secretary.
Each Student Government mem-ber, regardless of his or her position, is required to hold certain number of ofce hours each month, so they can address the needs of students and members of the community.
Student Government member, regardless of his or her position, is required to hold certain number of ofce hours each month, so they can address the needs of students and members of the community.
Students are encouraged to take advantage of these office hours by stopping by and providing feedback to Student Government about any-thing on campus. To give a better idea of what it is to be a member of Student Government, I have in-terviewed several members below.
Mustafa Rahman ’17, the current Treasurer for Student Government, has been a member for a while and previously served as a Hall Senator for Roberts Hall. “I believe that Student Government has contrib-uted significantly to making me a better leader and getting more in-volved on campus” he said. As an Economics Major, Mustafa enjoys how his position as Treasurer is re-lated to his eld of interest. “It gives me the opportunity to serve people in [the]field I am passionate about”.
As current President and former Clubs and Organizations Commit-tee Chair, Raphael Mathis ’17 be-lieves that Student Government has helped him develop leadership skills, as well as effective and efcient communication skills. Mathis said, “My favorite part is working and getting to know people on campus, mainly the Senators. I feel students should join Student Government be-cause it is a good way to make pos-itive changes on this campus, since we work with so many offices.”
If you have any concerns or questions, address them to any member of Student Government. Feel free to also come by their ofce hours. The ofce hours for executive board members are posted on a board next to Pierson Room and the ones for other members will be posted there soon.
