Variety of committees offered to students

UW-River Falls has over 100 openings for students to serve on various committees on campus, according to Student Senate Vice President Anthony Sumnicht.

There are different types of committees, which are either a part of Student Senate, Faculty Senate or Advisory. Some committees have only one available seat for students, while some have upwards of six, according to Sumnicht.

Faculty Senate committees operate through the University and tackle a wide variety of issues, such as the University Safety Committee, the Chancellor’s Award Committee and various curriculum committees.

Student Senate committees operate in conjunction with Student Senate and work on policy changes within the University. Some of these committees include the Inclusivity and Diversity Issues, Finance, and Legislative Affairs committees.

There are also advisory committees which handle non-allocable fees. These non-allocable fee committees involve various things some students use every day. One such committee is the Dining Services Advisory Committee (DSAC) which deals with the dining service students use every day.

“If students have any interest in anything, we can find a committee for that,” Sumnicht said. “Anyone can find a committee they enjoy being a part of.”

Currently there are a list of committees on the UWRF website, but they are scattered between the Student and Faculty Senate pages. However, at the Student Senate meeting on Sept. 17, Shared Governance Director Dominic Riel said that he was working with Student Organizations and Leadership Coordinator Anna Hunter to compile a master list of all committees, and their openings, and post it on OrgSync so students can find it easily.

Sumnicht said that the master list of committees should be up on OrgSync within the week.

If students are interested in a given committee, they must fill out one of two applications.

“One is the general student committee application, for any committee on campus a student can fill out that application,” Riel said. “There is also a second application for student advisory committees which fall under the facilities and fees board, which review the non-allocable, segregated fees and those departments.”

Riel added that if students are unsure which application to fill out, they should fill out the general student committee application.

Senior Theodore McDonough is a member of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Curriculum Committee. McDonough has seen a lot of positives come from his time on the committee.

“It was a good opportunity for me to meet other faculty in a non-classroom environment where we are peers, as opposed to above and below,” McDonough said. “It really provides an opportunity to make good networking on campus especially with the other faculty.”

Riel and Sumnicht both said they want to continue to get the word out and fill most, if not all, committees this year.

Getting the word out on the committees is something that McDonough agreed would be helpful, “Not a lot of people know about a lot of the different committees.”

If students have questions about getting involved in various committees they should contact Riel via email at dominic.riel@my.uwrf.edu.