Student Union released term goals for the year focused on rebuilding. (Marco Zhang | Student Life)

Student Union (SU) released its 10 term goals for the 2024-2025 academic year, which focused on improving the organization’s operations to better serve the WashU student body. 

The goals, themed “Rebuild,” include relaunching the SU Legislative Council, reviewing the SU constitution, promoting connections between students and administrators, and improving communication from SU to the WashU community.  

SU President and senior Hussein Amuri said the Term Goals were composed with the intent to better include students and have their voices heard. Amuri felt that especially last year, students’ voices weren’t always heard on campus.

“Rebuilding was really the mindset,” he said. “Much of what happened last semester is still being felt by our campus community members to this day, and there was a belief that we can’t run our student government without really acknowledging that.” 

SU noted that a big part of rebuilding the organization involves relaunching its Legislative Council. In its Term Goals Statement, SU described this move as “a key initiative aimed at fostering a stronger culture and enhancing transparency between the Senate and the Treasury.” 

The Legislative Council will include representatives from both the Senate and the Treasury. Amuri explained the Council’s leadership structure. 

“There is the Senate committee chair and then Treasury leadership, that’s the two committee chairs, and then the speaker,” he said. “Those [leaders] meet on a bi-weekly basis to give updates in regard to their respective [entities] about what’s going on.”

In their Term Goals, SU also expressed an interest in re-examining its constitution. The organization wrote, “We want our Constitution to act as a living document, representing our ever changing needs as a community.” 

Amuri said it is important to continue reviewing the constitution to find potential future issues before they arise. In order to do so, SU has created a Constitutional Task Force consisting of Treasury and Senate representatives, the chief justice, and the executive vice president. 

SU also made a pledge to improve communication with the student body. 

“Revamping our communication infrastructure is one of our big goals,” Amuri said. “We have the newsletter, for example; we’re going to be introducing that this year.” 

For some students, inclusion of their views cannot come soon enough. Sophomore Ian Scholes criticized the organization’s past performance. 

“I think it’s a bloated organization that is largely ineffective,” Scholes said. “I think the point of the Student Union is that nobody knows what they do, but the members can put it on their resumes.”  

Sophomore Michael Ostrower said he did not know much about SU in the first place. “I haven’t heard very much from them,” he said.

Sophomore Anita Buchanan expressed optimism about SU’s potential as an organization. 

“I think the Student Union has a real power to do some good for campus. It’s just about what they do with it,” she said.

Amuri emphasized that SU’s primary mission is to serve WashU students. 

“I want people to know that we’re listening,” he said. “We’re here to serve you. We want you to know that we are constantly working on your behalf and making sure that your needs and interests are being met.”