Spring Cleaning in the Senate
March 21, 2019
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The student senate is in full gear as they scramble to reshape leadership and reform ideologies. A loss in leadership roles hampered the senate when it lost President Elijah Muhammad late in the fall semester. Mohammad’s abrupt departure from campus left many in the senate filling gaps in leadership.
The reasons for Muhammad’s departure remains unclear.
“The administration supports all students [and] wants them to be successful,” Michael Opoku, director of Student Development and Engagement said. Opoku assists the student senate on an administrative level and aided former Muhammad until his departure.
This semester the senate aims to find permanent replacements for vacant positions, with a unified attitude with its duty to both the college and its student constituents. Senator Josh Reiten served as interim president last semester in Muhammad’s stead, and continued to serve as interim early this semester.
On Feb. 4 student senate appointed “Silver” Musawwar Alvi as senate president and Rachel Bray returned to student senate as a senator. Bray was senate president from 2017-18.
Feb. 11’s meeting resulted in more leadership changes. Student senate approved Cody Palmer has a new senator and then later in the meeting as vice president of senate.
“Primary goals, as always are recruitment,” Alvi said. “We always appreciate new members and fresh faces to join and provide a broader student perspective.”
College affordability is a top concern for the senate. Many students have difficulty affording college and the senate aims to motivate students to participate in vocalizing their worries and write letters to their representatives to affect change.
“Tuition costs have been a major issue for many students on campus. We hope to draw attention to this issue and provide a platform for students to voice their concerns and offer feedback,” Alvi said.
The senate has also assisted with the Campus Cupboard, an ambitious undertaking for the college that assists students with food security issues.
“We are focusing on Lead MN’s overarching goal of food insecurity,” Alvi said. “We are dedicated to assisting the Campus Cupboard, raising awareness for them and establishing better name recognition. Students understanding what the Campus Cupboard is, and how to better utilize this resource is a primary goal of the senate.”
The senate has a general goal of returning to their purpose of being dutiful servants to the student body. Senators plan to close in on long established goals that will lift up students in difficult situations, represent their best interests and raise the quality of campus life for every student.
Opoku said it is important for the senate to have realistic plans.
“With a new semester, the senate needs to discern what goals are attainable,” Opoku said. Opoku offered words of encouragement for those considering joining the student senate. “All students can shine in the student senate, no matter their previous involvement.”
The fall semester was difficult for the senate as it recovered from an investigation regarding an earlier removal of Muhammad from his position and a high turnaround of senate positions. The senate intends to regain footing that was lost in the past two semesters, re-establish trust in the student body and work tirelessly for the betterment of all Anoka-Ramsey students.
Kent, Hello I hope all is well. As the semester comes to an end I would just like to reach out to you and let you hear my voice. The voice of a student that no longer feels welcome inside her home campus doors. As you have been put in the place of the President of the College I Attend, I cannot wish more that I could change the color of skin to BLACK to be found accepted and welcome. as a student. I find myself grateful that I am not seeking my degree at Anoka Ramsey Community College Coon Rapids because of that as well as other reasons. I have successfully registered for my last semester with Bemidji State University seeking my Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a major in management and marketing. I am very thankful I will not be graduating from ARCC and walking that stage within the doors of that campus.
Elijah Muhammad first was in the campus eye newspaper Jan,2018 after being removed from Senate for his GPA requirements. Javiv was then found in violation of the code of conduct(school and senate). When Elijah was Elected by the student body. “Anoka Ramsey’s Student Senate made the move to remove President-elect Elijah Muhammad from office, however, the move is not final: President Hanson stepped in as of Monday, April 23rd to conduct his own investigation. The decision to remove Muhammad was made after an investigation that was brought about by several anonymous notes from the student suggestion box. According to the student senate bylaws, all notes must be read and discussed. There were four notes in total with complaints about Muhammad. ” – Campus Eye
The Student Sentate remove Elijah and disqualified him due to his way of pressuring students to vote for him during the election day.
When the process happened when you took it upon yourself to investigate further and to not trust the Student Sentate it was then that other students as well as myself lost a lot of respect for you. From that day further I continued to wish I could be black or hispanic to be welcome by you and other faculty and administration.
The process made us look bad as a Student Senate because it made us look incapable of doing what was right and just.
Now, Elijah was to return in the fall of 2018 to fulfill his tern that you gave back to him simply because of his color. And look. He’s a college dropout. He left the Student Senate hanging with no leadership whatsoever. No communication from him so Senate had to pick up the pieces that he left behind. I have never felt so disrespected by a College President in my life. And that is you. Thank you for listening.