Student Senate Hosts Career Advice, Encouragement for Students

Student Senate heard a variety of presentations with a general theme of student leadership as well as many new senator appointments Wednesday evening.The most centralized leadership presentation came from Senator-at-Large Drew Hudson and Career Services and Leadership Center representative Greg Bline. Focused on promoting the center’s services to students, Hudson said that by engaging in the program, “you have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.”Student Career Services and the Amanda J. Cunningham Leadership Center combined last year to make a single division committed to helping students improve their leadership and professional skills. After the merger, Bline said the center is creating a new strategic planning process that will help determine what the center is going to offer students.“No one is a born a leader … it is a lifelong engagement,” said Hudson of leadership, who described all of the Senate members as leaders at OU.An entrepreneurial leader in his own respect, junior Brian Adams gave a presentation on Bobcat Classifieds, a website he created to act as a centralized marketplace for students, much like Craigslist.The difference between Bobcat Classifieds and sites like Craigslist, Adams said, is the safety factor. Only students with an OHIO ID can register for the site to buy, sell and promote their items; eliminating the risk for scammers. Unless a student is registered for the site, all of the seller information remains private.“I want to create something for this school … to benefit this school,” said Adams. With 442 registered users and over 100 live ads in the past two weeks, the site is quickly gaining momentum. Students can find housing, electronics, used books, furniture and more on the site, as well as advertising for tutors.The Bobcat Readership Program has seen widespread support from students, as 97.35 percent of newspapers delivered the three campus locations are picked up on a daily basis.The readership program, which began this semester after a trial run last spring quarter, was started as an effort to enhance civic awareness, said representative from USA Today Ian Dryburgh.Data has shown that newspaper readership supports development of “cognitive skills; increasing one’s awareness, understanding, and the ability to articulate views on current issues; and developing civic-mindedness,” said the Penn State Pulse. The program began with Penn State and quickly spread to hundreds of universities.In addition, students only pay for the newspapers that are being picked up, not all of the newspapers delivered. So far, The New York Times, USA Today and Columbus Dispatch are delivered to Baker Center, Alden Library and Nelson Commons.Senate also passed several resolutions during its meeting. The appointment of Tyler Blair as Senator-at-Large received unanimous consent; appointment of SAC Senator-at-Large Christopher French passed unanimously; as well as the appointment of Andrew Mlynarski as Senator for Athletic Affairs. Senate also combined several commissions under the umbrella commission of governmental affairs, with Giles Allen as its commissioner.