Senator Angelina DeCrow has been elected as the new Senate Leader for Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) Senate branch of Associated Student Government (ASG) for the Spring 2022 semester.
This is the third Senate Leader of the school year after the previous two resigned for personal reasons in Fall 2021.
“We were trying to get the ball rolling the whole year because we just started off in a really bad place and I also just think that we, as a collective body, hadn’t been setting measurable goals and that is stressful on a Senate Leader,” DeCrow said.
The Senate Leader oversees the Senate and ensures both participation and a smooth process. DeCrow will also oversee committees set up and act as the bridge between members of the Senate and the Executive Branch of ASG. In addition to those, duties include writing bills, finding sponsors and communicating with clubs and other organizations.
“I am very excited to welcome Senator DeCrow to her new position as Senate Leader. She clearly demonstrates her wealth of experience and knowledge inside and outside of our meetings. I’m eager to work alongside her throughout this busy semester to represent the needs of CMU’s students,” ASG President Jay Shearrow said.
DeCrow has been with the Senate for three years, starting as the Computer Sciences and Engineering Senator. The now third-year Computer Science and Graphic Design double major was offered the Press Secretary position after putting together a campaign for Hawaiian/Polynesian students before being elected as Senate Leader.
Having a high turnover of leaders in the Senate can make the process difficult and DeCrow hopes to provide stability to the situation.
“Having three Senate Leaders in one academic year is not something that I envisioned when we began working in August,” Shearrow said, ”[…] As for my hope for the Senate and future turnover, I want to further empower the Senate to build relationships outside of meetings while pursuing initiatives they are passionate about in addition to fiscal responsibility.”
Part of DeCrow’s platform includes setting more tangible goals for the future, as the good intentions were often difficult to actually measure success rates.
“I would say one of the biggest [goals] is to focus on mental health, right? That is a non-measurable goal. It is a great goal, but it’s not measurable. Whereas saying, ‘I want to put on a mental health campaign twice on social media that’s attainable and measurable,’ [is a measurable goal]. That’s what I’m talking about, where the goals themselves aren’t bad goals. We just need to reroute them to where we can measure them and hopefully achieve them,” DeCrow said.
This platform of goals includes increased communication between committees, departments and clubs.
“I want to help them find a channel and help them set achievable goals in order for us to be more action-oriented as far as the Senate, and so I’m hoping to revitalize some of our committees and help them grow and then I’m also trying to make a big push to communicate with departments and clubs within departments,” DeCrow said.
That push for departments and clubs would include more public input and funding help, as well as promotional efforts for fundraisers and other activities.
“One of my other really big goals is to put on events for non-traditional students. I know our [student government] Vice President [Salina Edwards] is a non-trad[itional] student, and we’ve had non-trad senators, we have non-trad representatives, so it’s just one of those things where I feel like we’re missing a huge body of students by not representing them and having events for them,” DeCrow said.
ASG’s three branches have undergone significant change in the 2021-2022 school year and the decline of activity during the pandemic have both contributed to the turnover.
“My goal for the Senate this semester is to finish strong. Last fall was extraordinarily busy. However, there are more things to be done before this year ends. I’m excited to see the initiatives the Senate takes on as we move into another busy semester with things coming up like MavAwards, elections, Maverick Marketplace and more,” Shearrow said.
