Despite the Student Association senate’s increased decision-making role in issues as diverse as academic policy to election codes, it remains, arguably, the most ignored branch of Mississippi State’s student government.
Voter turnout for the yearly election of senators pulls in the lowest numbers of the year, behind Homecoming and Executive Council. In 2012, 16.5 percent of the student body voted to elect its senators as opposed to the 29.5 percent who voted in the Homecoming election.
The senate, which has four freshman and three graduate student seats, also determines its numbers by the  equation found in the SA Constitution: (total number of undergraduate students divided by 650) multiplied by (the number of students in the college divided by total number of undergraduate students), with numbers whose decimal place of 0.5 or more being round up to the next number.
Courtney Harris, senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, said because of the change in the senate’s structure (representation was previously decided by residence and college), becoming a senator has become more prestigious and competitive.
As the members of the senate elected take their positions seriously, they create an environment in which multiple viewpoints on an issue can be voiced. Harris said she noticed that since the senate has decreased in size, the voting is not always a chorus of “yeses.”
“I think each group is diverse in their own right,” Harris said. “If you go to a senate meeting, you’re going to get discussion because everyone has a different viewpoint, everybody has had a different experience here at State, and that really determines their opinions and their viewpoint on the legislation and what we’re passing. So I think you will get a diverse group whether they look it or not.”
Morgan McDowell, senator for the College of Business, said that he, as well as other senators, want to hear from their constituents.
Although only senators can introduce legislation, students can come to their senators with issues.
“Senate is so important. Senate has just now realized its full power and potential. The senate has so much power, and they need to understand that and the students need to understand what the senate can do for them,” he said. “The senate is putting in a lot of time and effort this year, doing things that are going to benefit students 10, 15 years down the road and at the current level.”
Although senate passes policy that affects student lives day-to-day, Harris said she thinks the legislative branch is partially unknown because they do not create many tangible events.
“People are giving their time and their effort to benefit the student body, and I don’t know if students get to see that as much as they get to see how many events cabinet put on or how awesome Bulldog Bash was. It’s harder for students to realize how much work we put into it,” she said.
This year, instead of meeting once every two weeks as in past years, the senate meets every Tuesday.
On alternating weeks, the senate has business meetings in which it passes legislation or committee meetings to draft legislation, she said.
Eddie Keith, associate dean of students, said the challenge senators face is expanding their horizons by talking to students in different organizations and classes in order to properly represent their constituencies.
 Senators, he said, usually take one of two paths: they either vote with their conscience or seek to represent the views of the people, even if they are at odds with the senators’ personal feelings.
“I think they (the senate) do a good job, but people don’t know what they do and consequently, at some point, if people don’t see what a body is doing as important then that body may not do as many important things. I think it’s in everybody’s interests for the senate’s actions to be out in front,” he said.
Shelby Balius, SA president, said the senate is the most ignored part of the SA and that it needs to be recognized because the legislative branch is the most powerful.
“They (senators) can be so focused in how they represent their students and their constituencies   because they have smaller constituencies to worry about and contact them so much more efficiently,” Balius said. “It is very hard for me to figure out the opinion of 20,000 students. But someone who is looking at the College of Engineering and the couple of thousand that involves … a couple thousand versus 20,000 – big difference. They can be more of an ear to listen and then enact change through legislation than the president or any other exec can ever do.”
Rhett Hobart, former SA president, said the senate has the opportunity to control every bit of SA funding.
“That’s about half a million dollars that the SA distributes out to other organizations on campus, to Bulldog Bash, to all these other groups. When you control an amount of money like that, you are immediately handed a great amount of power,” he said. “The SA senate controls the way elections are held, they control every bit of campaigning, they control the way appropriations are distributed to campus organizations … they control, essentially, every decision made in the SA.”
Hank Flick, professor in the Department of Communication and senate parliamentarian, said the senate is a point of pride because the people who serve as senators do so on their way to larger leadership positions, law school and graduate school success.
Flick said two-thirds of learning takes place outside of the classroom, and participating in student government, for example, can give a student a more well-rounded experience through service work on campus.
He said he believes the People’s University label of Mississippi State should be embodied through service.
“The thing that holds it altogether is service. I’m responsible for making a good world better.  … Actual service to others, being nicer than the person you met before, listening to others, affirming others, being good in the small stuff. It’s all about the small stuff,” he said. “That’s a people’s university – elevating the status of young people, so they know they’re special. Service can help you feel like you have a niche.”
Harris said the senate not only taught her the value of community service but also helped her develop as a leader.
Through her experiences, she said she learned her opinion is important.
“If I don’t explain my opinion, then there’s someone’s voice (that) is not getting heard,” she said. “The university has offered me so many opportunities and abilities to give back, and (the senate has) really helped me give back.”