M.C.S.A. Senate

I first became involved with student government my Sophomore year as the Senate reporter for The Swinging Bridge.  I was also assigned to the Academic Computing Student/Faculty Committee through the Messiah College Student Association (MCSA) that same year.  The following year, fall 1996, I was elected into the Senate by my peers.  Senate consists of seven Senators and a President from each class.  It is their role to legislate and administer student government affairs.  Essentially, we look at areas of concern to students on campus and decide what we feel the majority of students would like done.  Senate is also in charge of approving the MCSA budget, Student/Faculty Committee Representatives, and allowing various organizations on campus to exist.  My first year, I was a member of the Cost Analysis Committee and the Chair of the Constitutional Amendments Ad Hoc Committee.  My second year, I was the Chair of the Cost Analysis Committee.  I also served on the Judicial Review Committee, The Dance Policy Ad Hoc Committee, the Chapel Probation Ad Hoc Committee, and the President/Chaplain Ad Hoc Committee.

Every year, the Cost Analysis Committee is required to look at the student activity fee to see if it needed to be raised or lowered due to inflation and other circumstances.  We also look at stipended positions every year to determine which positions would receive stipends.  Both of these items above are mandated to be reviewed again every year.  Our committee also looks at the cost of items on campus to determine if they are comparable to other colleges as well as local stores.  We have looked at the following costs : amount of stipends, laundry, books, non-academic supplies (shampoo, etc.), car and van rentals, dining room meals, telephone rates, et al.  The committee I chaired consisted of myself and three other Senators.

The Constitutional Amendments Committee was only in existence for one year.  As Chair, I was in charge of three other Senators.  Together, we looked at the Constitution and By-Laws of MCSA to correct the following : grammatical errors, stray marks, outdated names of positions or documents that no longer existed, transition periods of positions from one year to the next, inconsistencies, et al.

The Judicial Review Committee's sole purpose is to review candidates who wish to run for Judicial Council (J-Council).  J-Council is a body of six students (two Sophomores, two Juniors, and two Seniors) who hear cases where students have broken the rules set forth in the Student Handbook.  Because of the nature of this position, candidates must be responsible, have a good knowledge of the rules and regulations set forth in the handbook, and be able to maintain a high level of confidentiality.

The Dance Policy Ad Hoc Committee's primary focus was revision of the existing dance policy.  Dancing first became allowed at Messiah in 1994 under strict regulations.  Four years later, some of the policy has been ignored.  Our goal was to sort out what regulations we needed to start enforcing and what regulations could be eliminated from the current policy.

The Chapel Probation Ad Hoc Committee was created due to a misinterpretation of our Constitution.  One section states that no one in a leadership position can be on Academic, Disciplinary, or Chapel Probation, otherwise, they would be required to vacate their position.  Another section said that requirements for nomination can be overridden by a 2/3 vote in Senate.  The constitution was interpreted to mean that leaders would not have to vacate their position if they receive a 2/3 vote in Senate.  Our committee was to look at both policies (the written one and the one being practiced) and see which policy we would like to be the official one.

The President/Chaplain Ad Hoc Committee was designed to make the duties of the class president position and the class chaplian position more defined so that there would not be conflict between the two.  The Constitution was ambiguous as to whom the spiritual leader was : the president with the chaplain doing the dirty work, or the chaplain with a separation of church and state.

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Copyright © 1998-2003, Chad T. Lower, Revised -- 1 June 2003