Student government explores new decision making policies

On September 7, the Student Senate created a task force to find new ways of representing the student body in forming university policies.

“The Student Senate of George Mason University supports the exploration of a shared governance model that brings students, faculty, staff, and administrators to the decision making table,” read the resolution passed by the Student Senate.

Even though student government represents the student body, it has no power to implement its policies.

“We are more like a student lobbying group than an actual government, in that we can propose plans to the university but do not have the power to set policy for the university,” said Matthew Short, Speaker of the Student Senate, in an email. “That is not to say that we do not get things changed (we do speak in theory for 33,000 students), but we do not have the power right now to outright change university policy.”

Mason policies are created and implemented by administration officials.

The current process is exemplified in the presidential search committee created last year. The committee included the Board of Visitors (BoV), faculty, and one student—former Student Body President Allyson Bowers. Although committee members could present a recommendation for the university’s new president, the BoV had the final vote.

President Bowers “was bound by confidentiality and was legally prevented from keeping the search process completely transparent,” said Jason von Kundra, chair of the shared governance task force, in an email.

Von Kundra explained that the idea of shared governance is both realistic and obtainable as it is already occurring at Mason on a small scale. In a letter from the task force to the student government, the Patriot Green Fund was cited as a good example of this representation. The Patriot Green Fund committee, which finances sustainability projects on campus, is comprised of students, faculty and staff,. All members have equal power in determining funding recipients.

Currently, the task force is researching what shared governance means and how it’s carried out at other universities.

“True shared governance requires students to be included at the decision making table for decisions that impact them the most, such as student life, student fees, and student services,” read the letter to Student Government.

“One of the first steps of the task force, especially between these three bodies, will be to define: what does shared governance mean?” said student body president Alex Williams in an email. “It can mean more decision-making power; it can mean having a seat at the table, a vote or a voice or both; the many iterations of ‘shared governance’ vary university to university. Part of what student government wants to do is to assess the student voice to better understand what do we, as students, want shared governance to mean here at Mason?”