Student Union Senate voted to dissolve its old structure and form new, issue-based committees earlier this month. Chairs for the new committees were internally elected Tuesday.

The four issue-based committees are Academic Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion, Health and Wellness and Campus and Residential Experience. Each committee will be composed of other senators, leaders and members from relevant student group and individual students.

Previously, Senate had three committees: Outreach, Projects and Resolution. According to the speaker of Senate, sophomore Sophie Scott, the old structure was designed to mirror the steps of advocacy.

“We’ve realized that having those three task-oriented committees can lead to a breakdown of Senate productivity if just one of them isn’t working at its best,” Scott said. “So we decided based on the Improve Wash. U. campaign we did at the end of last year to create four task forces based on those issues.”

According to Scott, senators will pursue projects housed in their respective committees based on the results of the Improve Wash. U. campaign. The campaign focuses on generating student input on what changes students want to see on campus to better their experience. Scott said she hopes SU will be able to annually produce the report to inform what specific issues SU should prioritize.

“Once we finish the upcoming Improve Wash. U. campaign our committees will take those results and choose what projects they want to take on based on that and based on what the student group leaders and student involvement on the committee want to do,” she said. “All the project ideas will be coming straight from Improve Wash. U. done annually.”

Scott said that each campaign will undertake one larger project that will involve all members of the committee that would culminate in a final report. The committee will also be tasked with taking on two to three smaller projects. At least one project is required to be focused on the experiences of students with marginalized identities.

“I think the experiences of marginalized students on our campus are consistently overlooked by the University, other students and Student Union,” Scott said. “I think it’s time to show students with marginalized identities that we hear them and we are here to act to improve their experience.”

Sophomore Allyson Hollie was elected chair of the Diversity and Inclusion committee. She said she wants to make sure her committee focuses on initiatives that the student body expresses interest in via the Improve Wash. U. campaign. According to the statutes, the committee shall “pursue projects and initiatives based on constituent interests which may include, but are not limited to, issues regarding racial and gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and socioeconomic status.”

“I decided to run for this chair because one of my biggest advocacy issues, especially on campus life, is that communities of people who are discriminated against don’t necessarily always get their voice heard,” Hollie said.

Freshman Gaby Smith was elected chair of the Health and Wellness committee. Previously, she was the head of the mental health task force. Smith said that she plans to focus on all aspects of student wellness including sexual health, mental health, physical health and also advocating on behalf of organizations related to sexual violence.

“Health and wellness is so central to our lives as students,” Smith said. “We need to be physically and mentally well if we want to be able to excel in our studies, in our extracurriculars and we want to be able to make sure that our University and our Student Health Services and our administrators are supporting students in their health and wellness.”

Smith said she also wants to keep working to secure the longevity of the Mental Health Fund. The fund is designed to ensure students who come from under-resourced backgrounds have financial access to seek mental health treatment.

“[I want to make] sure we have sustainability funding both through SU, hopefully fully through donors for that so we can ensure that we’re able to continue our care and even expand the scope of our funding for low socioeconomic students seeking mental health care,” Smith said.

Smith also wants to work on increasing access to contraceptives and free services like STI screenings. She also said she hopes to raise more awareness about resources available on campus.

“On the mental health task force we made a resource sheet that had a lot of compiled resources on mental health,” Smith said. “I’d love to do something similar for sexual violence or sexual health that will show students on and off-campus resources and resources that might pertain to a specific identity.”

Freshman Philip Keisler was elected chair of the Campus and Residential Experience Committee committee. He said he is interested in addressing issues of sustainability and inclusivity with the residential experience.

“I really have a passion for working on sustainability projects, but also…probably the reason I came to Senate in the first place was because I was really passionate about working on projects to make the school more inclusive for transgender and gender non-binary students,” Keisler said. “So working, for instance, [on] making more gender-neutral bathrooms in dorms but also trying to work on improving gender-inclusive housing.”

Keisler said that as chair, he saw his role as bringing together as many perspectives and voices as he could to best serve the interests of the student body.

“I have a role in trying to support my fellow committee members in pursuing not only the committee projects but the individual projects,” Keisler said. “The general goals of the committee are to focus on sustainability, accessibility, things about residential life and the campus experience.”

The Academic Affairs Committee will be chaired by freshman Anne He. The committee is tasked with taking on “projects and initiatives based on constituent interests which may include, but are not limited to, issues regarding classes, career interests and academic resources.”

“I think that academics is by and large the one thing that every single Wash. U. student holds in common,” He said. “We all came here for one reason and that’s primarily to further our academic careers and so issues that impact the academic affairs, literally impact every single student. I thought what better way to be able to address issues that impact every single one of us here.”

He said she anticipated having overlap with the other committees because of academic affairs. She mentioned that projects like setting up a mentorship program that would not only pair students with advisors by academic interest but by other identities, like being a first generation student, could be ones her committee will explore. She also mentioned creating resources like a Google document with links to free PDF textbooks to alleviate the costs associated with classes for students.

“I think that because academic affairs overlaps with every single student, it will definitely have intersectional issues as well,” He said.

He said that she would know if the committee was successful by seeing how many points from the Improve Wash. U. report they can address.

“For me, personally, I think I really like to see a group of people working on something actively. Like actively producing tangible products week after week after week,” He said. “I think successfully making sure our committee is pushing something at least every one or two weeks to get our name out there and to be doing small things that can all add up in the future.”