Enjoy. I did that back in 2004-05.
Are they still utilizing the New Senator's Handbook at all? I tried to create that so that people would have some clue what was going on when they came in (because I sure didn't) but I don't know if anyone kept that going beyond the year after mine.
The position can kind of be what you make of it. It doesn't enable you to do too much more than a regular student as far as a lot of issues go, but it does give you a little more clout when talking with people who might be able to help get things done. If you are like many of the senators I knew, you will go to the meetings, vote a little, and pad your resume while not doing all that much.
There will however be some senators who excel at the position and accomplish some things. While I was there I arranged for the reserve funds to be put in an interest bearing account, resulting a few thousand extra dollars a year. Also, although we couldn't stop it, the advocacy of some of our members was able to get some important changes made to the county keg registration ordinance. We also got the first ever student (Ryan Doll) elected to the Ames City Counsel (although I assume he's graduated by this point). A few of us also tried to get an informational campaign going to get people to consolidate their loans back when interest rates were only 2.85% and not consolidating at that rate meant you were uninformed or financially inept. Unfortunately that didn't really take off like I'd hoped. We also did a lot of stuff to try and get VEISHEA going again since that was the year after the most recent riot.
We also spent much of the year fighting over whether or not to fund a
ISU PIRG organization on campus, which eventually resulted in nothing happening. A word of advise as far as what I would do - get in touch with the governments of the other regents institutions and pool some funds to hire a few lobbyists for higher education funding at the capitol. Tuition at
ISU when up almost 60% in just the four years I was there. There have been multiple attempts to get student leaders to lobby effectively, and they have all eventually fizzled, because there is simply too much transition in the college ranks. A consistent presence could save students some money.
You will find that it is next to impossible to organize a large group of students to do just about anything (e.g. vote) because most don't care. I think this is in large part due to the transitory nature of the group you represent. For example, even though the population of Ames is almost always 50% students, about 20% of that group leaves every year to be replaced by new people, and every 5 years or so the vast majority of the student population is different than it was before. This also means that there is very little institutional memory. Mary (your office manager) can be your best friend from this standpoint.
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