Hands On: BVU Students’ First Amendment Rights: “Petition”

Lena Gripp, Contributing Writer

One of the most influential organizations on BVU’s campus is Student Senate.  Student Senate is responsible for responding to student concerns, passing issues and ideas along to faculty, staff, and administrators to better the BVU campus and overall school experience.  Student Senate member Emily Brewer explains that, “Student Senate is a place where students bring up their concerns, where we then take to the right people, so we can bring change to the campus.” 

Emily Brewer claims that, “The right to petition is super important to Senate.”  I also had the privilege of speaking with Student Senate member Natalie Brewer.  Natalie claims that, “With Student Senate and the right to petition, we use it as a way to show our concerns/complaints about something to see a change that we will hopefully benefit everyone around us.”  Senate makes decisions by voting and finding the majority opinion of what they think is going to be most beneficial to the population on BVU’s campus. 

The recent Forum renovations have allowed planned space for unisex restrooms on campus.  Student Senate was presented with this idea years ago and now has the perfect opportunity to install these restrooms.  Brewer states, “We heard a concern and wanted to make people comfortable and happy about their home away from home.”  Now we have multiple gender-neutral restrooms on campus to accommodate student, faculty, staff, and campus visitors. 

If any interests to better BVU’s campus come up, all students are welcome to attend Student Senate meetings and offer up their opinions.  Meetings are held in Forum Room 1 (100) at 7:00 p.m. every Thursday evening.