Government Action
In Ames Library, the senators of Seattle Pacific University’s student body and members of the ASSP core gathered on the second floor in order to discuss the business of the week. The officers of ASSP opened senate with their weekly reports regarding proposals, events coming up, and goals they are trying to reach.
President Nathan Samayo spoke about his efforts to acquire speaker Tim Wise with the School of Humanities. They have currently raised $5500 from the department to do so, with hopes of obtaining more. The most notable moment of the evening was the presence of a new face in senate this week, the Rev. Lisa Ishihara.
Ishihara came to senate to discuss plans she had in the works and receive positive and constructive feedback from senate on it.
Her new position as Chaplain has led her to work in close relationship with Vice President of Ministries Madyson Fulcher to prepare for chapels further in advance and to receive feedback from students about ministries.
Ishihara sees Fulcher as an advocate to help bring voices to the table and find connection points that contribute to ministries for Seattle Pacific University.
Her main goal is to find out what are some things missing on campus, and specifically what voices are missing. In tackling this she wants to not approach things like worship, outreach or Bible study in stereotypical manner.
Ishihara wants the student body to think about how to live flourishing, thriving lives as individuals, a church and a university. In order to help reach her goal, one of the things she will be launching is a new pilot program that will conduct weekly Bible studies during a seven-week period in the winter quarter with nine pastors of different denominations.
There will be two identical sessions held on Wednesday during lunch hours and Thursday during late evening hours.
“The idea is [pastors] can have very strong convictions, but also that may be opposing at times, or people that are really theologically convicted can lose it too, or make mistakes.” Ishihara wants to have honest conversations and work through how we can still do life together as a community.
The study will be working through the entire book of Galatians and touching on issues that might not be commonly discussed in churches universally.
In her closing words, Ishihara stated that one of the main reasons to start this program is an effort to “discern the needs of students that are not getting met by providing an on ramp into conversations” that maybe are not being discussed, and she looks forward to connecting more with campus students.
The other big event of the night came from Vice President of Campus Activities Celeste Ajayi. Ajayi proposed buying 150 Nutcracker Ballet tickets for $38 a ticket for a total of $5700. Her plan is to sell them at$25 a ticket in order to keep student accessibility at the forefront, but also to minimize the loss of the general fund to $1950.
Ajayi stated that “losing some to give students a great experience is important to me.”
After a period of questions and debate about this proposal, the motion was passed, although not unanimously.
In Other Business:
The Vice President of Finance Sarah Kirschner talked about a proposal at finance board, and her ongoing effort to work on the details that involve Student Budget Committee
The Vice President of Ministries Fulcher again reviewed retreat finalization goals and setting up fireside chats. She is also working on creating a card or pamphlet about what each ministry does.
Senator Austin Matzelle is communicating with the director of the counseling center to redesign the website.
