The Rainy River Community College student senate was recently named the 2010 “Student Senate of the Year” by the Minnesota State College Student Association.
This school year, the RRCC senate grew from a mostly inactive organization to an active group of about 12 members.
Brad Krasaway, the group’s advisor and RRCC director of student life, nominated the group for the statewide award.
“It’s not so much how big they are or how much they have accomplished, but just knowing where the student senate came from,” Krasaway said.
The MSCSA represents students attending the state’s two-year technical, community, and comprehensive colleges on 47 campuses advocating for more than 100,000 students across the state.
Krasaway acknowledged that the RRCC student senate was competing for the award against schools with much larger enrollment and a larger student senate body, but said that RRCC was recognized for its growth.
“They went from nothing to something,” he said.
Krasaway credited the leadership from student members for this year’s successful program.
Among those leaders is student senate president Kelsey Fuerst.
“Nobody really knew how much power the student senate had on campus,” she said before opening a student senate meeting Wednesday in one of the college’s meeting rooms.
The senate’s activities this year have included setting up bylaws, developing a constitution, mission statement and student grievance form, as well as staging events for the students such as hosting a hypnotist show.
Student senate members have been involved in environmentally friendly “green” initiatives, including placing recycling bins around campus and grants that would help make student housing more “green.” Students also participated in “Kick Butts Day,” where they cleaned discarded cigarette butts from the campus grounds.
Students have become active on the regional and state level. They have advocated for affordable education among other topics at the state Legislature. Fuerst will represent the region when an MSCSA platform decided. The group has increased the number of board members and attendance at monthly MSCSA meetings.
Fuerst said the group will annually appoint new student leaders who will hopefully bring in even more students and continue the momentum gained this year. Bringing students to the MSCSA executive board meetings will help increase retention, she said, as students find out how much power student senates have and what they can accomplish.
To watch a video of Fuerst accepting the award, visit http://www.youtube.com/mscsa#p/u/4/Zm6m6d4GxfQ.
