The sweet smell of coffee and donuts percolated the warm, brightly lit classroom as senators and students alike gathered in University Student Union room 303 on Monday for a relaxing night of studying before finals.
The Associated Student Inc. senators of each college are holding study sessions open to students in the USU throughout the week in preparation for upcoming finals.
On Monday evening, the senators of the language arts department, James Allen and Joanna Salgado, hosted a study session.
“ASI is doing this as a way to reach out to our constituents,” Allen said. “Making a good forum for them, so just by having students come in and study for finals with their senators they’re able to get to know them better and the senators are able to talk to students about issues, get a better idea of what’s going on campus and things that we can address in the senate.”
Salgado said she and Allen have wanted to host coffee with the senators ever since they were elected.
“…We feel that it’s important that ASI knows their student body, and we feel like there is a gap between the student government and the student body.”
Although they said the idea of “Coffee with the Senators” was Allen and Salgado’s own original idea, the concept of Study with the Senators was a previously organized, mandatory event for all senators.
“ASI Vice President Nayiri Baghdassarian introduced to the senate these goals that we have to have study sessions during finals week, so each college senator has to have a study session with their college so we decided to combine [Coffee with the Senators and Study with the Senators],” Salgado said.
Spirits of both senators and students were high, but Salgado and Allen said they blamed the relatively low attendance of the event on its short notice planning and last minute promotion.
“We didn’t really plan this until about two weeks ago, so I guess you could say it was pretty last minute,” said Senator at Large Joanna Yan, who was participating in the event.
Out of the handful of student attendees, most had their laptops propped before them.
“[By coming here tonight], I hope to finish my paper, which I have due tonight at twelve,” Abhimanyu Narwal, a graduate student studying computer science engineering, said.
The event was one of ten different study sessions that will be held by senators throughout the week, each for their respective colleges.