Tables were set in place as students and staff began to spill in for the bi-annual meet the reps event. This event is held twice a year and is meant to establish a community between students and their Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress (HUSC) representatives. This event took the place of the General Assemblies typically held during convo hour on Tuesdays. Although HUSC’s General Assembly brings students together to share issues, the Meet the Reps event allows students to better understand who their reps are and what issues they want to address. Disability Representative Olivia Nesgoda explains that the event is important for increasing visibility for both disabled and able-bodied students.
“This event is important as far as visibility and getting it out there. HUSC is important for students because “Before I joined HUSC I didn’t really interact with it or care that much so just getting it out there that you have representatives out there who are able to pass resolutions for issues you face,” Nesgoda said.
Advocacy Representative and sophomore Finnley Abbott corroborates the importance of this event, emphasizing that there is an importance of knowing, and having a relationship with the representatives that speak for you. “So people simply know who their representatives are,” Abbott said. Abbott further elaborated on this by Delving into questions their peers ask when they say are the Advocacy Rep. Abbot said questions revolving around what the advocacy representative does are most common. Both Abbott and Nesgoda agreed that knowing your representatives allows for issues that arise on campus to be addressed fairly and quickly.
The event worked as a gateway for representatives to be able to meet their constituents and hear concerns they wanted addressed. First-year Haley Erickson’s reason for attending was to express issues taking place.
“I wanted to talk with the disability rep and my own residence hall rep about some issues I’ve noticed since arriving on campus,” Erickson said.
Without an opportunity to meet the appropriate representatives, it can feel difficult to reach out with concerns when you do not know who they are or how they serve the community. By connecting with representatives, concerns can be handled with more ease. Some concerns Erickson discussed with representatives included problems regarding maintenance. Erickson acknowledged that having a representative to turn to can become someone you can count on in the future.
“They can be your go to people,” Erickson said.
To know one’s representation is as important as representatives knowing their constituents. The HUSC event was an exemplary representation of the trust that is built by connecting communities with their representatives.