1. 探花社区
  2. Student Life
  3. Clubs & Organizations
  4. Student Senate

Student Senate

Meet the Senate, who exists to communicate the needs and wants of our students.

Student Senate group photo

About the Student Senate

Each year, 30 students from across campus are elected as Senators to help bridge the gap between faculty, staff, and students. Our job is to allocate funding to clubs and organizations, address living environment concerns, and overall, work to mold 探花社区 and its students' dreams.

Some of our favorite Senate ideas implemented on campus are:

  • Lo探花社区 - an annual fall event that brings Cedar Rapids life to 探花社区 with local food trucks and musical artists.
  • Menstrual Hygiene Project - to help anyone ever caught by surprise, Senate stocks all of the bathrooms in academic buildings with free tampons and pads.
  • Dropboxes - installed in centralized locations around campus, Dropboxes allow easy access to providing Senate with living environment concerns and feedback.

Funding

Student Senate is fully funded by the $142.50 Student Activities fee that every full-time student pays in their tuition each semester. Biannually, we allocate upwards of $115,000 to support clubs and the improvement of student life.

Meet the Executive Board

The Executive Board of the Student Senate helps to facilitate subcommittees and maintain order in meetings. At the beginning of each calendar year, student pairs are given the opportunity to run for the elected seats of the Student Body President and Vice President. The new leaders appoint the rest of their board with the approval of the Senate. The full Executive Board for the 2026 year is as follows:

  • Student Body President — Parth Matanhelia
  • Vice President of the Student Body — Zack Pearlman
  • Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — Ahmed Elsheikh
  • Treasurer — Cris Cano
  • Communications Officer — Bryan Chavez-Ramirez
  • Recording Secretary — Brandon Herrjon-Zavalza
  • Chairperson — Anika Jensen
  • Oversight & Auditing Chairperson — Roman Notsch

 

Parth & Zack's Platform

Refinements that go a long way

In the past, the Student Senate and campus have worked together on multiple projects to enhance the student experience and bring more opportunities to the student body. We want to find ways to further enhance the current structures we have set in place, while also refining them for this current student body. 

With the help of our Executive Board and Student Senate, we are working on creating a better organizational structure of how we handle finances with our clubs making them more efficient, connected, and consistent to fit the needs of the changing student body. We are committed to listening to what our student body needs to improve our financial matters. 

Connecting our College through Digital Access

We want to increase our digital access for all students, faculty, and staff to improve their experience on campus. Therefore, our first project introduced a partnership with New York Times to bring an all-access digital subscription for any 探花社区 student, staff, or Faculty member at no cost. Our campus is able to stay up to date with latest worldwide information at the touch of their fingertips. 

We want to help incorporate the use of Flight Path, our campus' involvement platform, so that every student can find their communities. We plan to incentivize the use of Flight Path as it relates to other student services. 

Improved Living Experience

Through our Living Environments Concerns (LEC) committee, we are working to improve small changes that enhance the quality of life for students. 

  • Whiteboards: we want to add whiteboards around living spaces and social spaces on campus for students to use while studying or for club meetings.
  • PUB furniture: now that the PUB has been remodeled, we want to add additional seating to create an atmosphere that further community.

These are a few of the projects we are hoping to see improved in our Presidency.

For any questions involving Student Senate or your 探花社区 experience, please contact senate@coe.edu.

Getting Involved

At the beginning of each academic year, a petition will be sent out to the full student body and students who want to join must obtain a predetermined number of signatures from their residence community. Once that is completed, a school wide poll will be emailed out and qualified candidates are elected in by members of that community.

All meetings are open to members of the 探花社区 community. Anyone can address their concerns during the Open Forum section of Senate meetings. Meetings are held every Thursday at 7:00 pm in Cherry Auditorium, and copies of our minutes are available on our Moodle page!

Learn More