Looking back on the last semester of student politics, there is no doubt that the SSDP [Students for Sensible Drug Policy] fiasco was the biggest issue that confronted the Student Association.

I can only hope that Student Affairs and Enrollment Management’s decision to recognize the group officially will allow us to put the dispute behind us.

With constitutional debates and threats of lawsuits aside, I wonder what the senate as a whole learned from the debate. For myself, I considered the issue a wake-up call to the votes cast weekly about university issues.

After being threatened by a lawsuit over a bylaws change, I started to realize how meaningful the senate is.

The votes we make affect individuals and groups alike, and the things we debate in-session have an impact outside of the room. The money we appropriate comes from the student body and is really spent for the students’ interests.

If the issues of last semester introduced fellow senators to the power of the senate, it is my opinion that we all come together to use our authority to make NIU a better place.

The main purpose of the SA, next to coordination of activities, is to represent student views concerning the university.

I hope that all students utilize and contact the SA with their ideas about how to better the campus, and that all senators put forward their ideas. There is no better place for success than an open forum of ideas.

Mike Theodore

freshman history major

SA Senator