The Internal Development Select Committee (IDSC) of the 39th Student Senate will implement a S.T.R.I.K.E. initiative to get more people involved with the Student Senate.
Many students are unaware of the role that the Student Senate plays in providing fun activities.
According to an IDSC committee member, Sen. Jarveal Baker, 23, a graduate professional MBA student from Winter Haven, Fla., the acronym S.T.R.I.K.E. stands for Senate Taking Responsibility & Initiative to Keep Excellence.
He said the initiative is created to reach students.
“The main reason for this initiative is to show the student body that we care,” Baker said.
“This initiative will motivate senators to go out to the student body and inform them what is going on in the senate and hear how the students feel about what is going on in the senate.”
When 19-year-old Sharronda James, a freshman healthcare management student from Miami, began to observe the spring 2010 campaign, she noticed that some people were candidates for a senate position.
James said she had a conversation with a friend and she wondered: “What do they do because it seems like everyone is running for senator.”
However, she said that she was “clueless” about what senators of FAMU actually do.
“Maybe it’s my fault for not finding that out, but they don’t broadcast it either,” James said.
IDSC Chairperson, Sen. Troy Harris, 19, a sophomore business student from Atlanta, said he wants the focus of the S.T.R.I.K.E. initiative to be targeted toward everyone who attends FAMU.
“The importance of reaching out to the student body can’t be expressed enough,” Harris said.
“The students initially elected us into office which makes their wants and desires of high importance.”
He also stressed the importance of student appreciation.
Without them, we wouldn’t be in the senate so showing that we care is really the least we can do.”
Although members of the IDSC created the idea, Harris wants the entire Student Government Association to assist in making the S.T.R.I.K.E. initiative a success.
“We encourage the entire senate, and all other branches of SGA to lend as much help as they can give to help us reach our goal,” Harris said.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about giving one committee all of the credit or glory. What’s most important to me is that the will of the student body gets executed and our ideas come to fruition.”
According to Baker, the S.T.R.I.K.E. initiative will officially begin on Wednesday, Feb. 17.
They will be held every other Wednesday in the first floor of the cafeteria, better known as the food court.
Senators will poll students on how the students feel about the different bills and legislation written by the Senate.
“The success of this initiative will be measured not by the amount of projects or pieces of legislation we draft, but by the general happiness of the people we have affected throughout this entire process,” Harris said.