With the exponential growth projected for NYU Shanghai in its first years, no one will escape the growing pains of a budding university. For Student Government, in particular, the demand for change and growth is a welcome challenge we’ve embraced and now present to you. As the second Student Government, we saw ourselves as caught in a transitional stage between precedent and progress. From the Fall 2014 Semester, Student Government approached its role in the same fashion as the previous Student Government. However, in organizing General Assemblies, Executive Board Meetings, and Chair Circle Meetings, we found we were not communicating or impacting the student body meaningfully in the way we had attempted. In light of this, Student Government is heading into the Spring Semester re-energized and re-imagined with initiatives to “break the mold before its sets” and develop a more effective and sophisticated Student Government for NYU Shanghai. We’ve rethought General Assemblies. The General Assembly is a Student Government staple and acts as the main platform for communication and interaction between students and their government. However, we found that the meetings became lists of updates repeated in the newsletters. In addition to this, attendance was mediocre and usually consisted of the same loyal crowd, budget was dwindling on pizza lunches, and neither conversations nor campaigns for change were produced from our meetings. Student Government is excited to announce that we are transitioning away from General Assemblies and forming new collaborations between On Century Avenue, Administrative Departments, and Student Government. These ‘student forums’ are aimed at fostering progress and addressing issues at NYU Shanghai through conversation, debate, and getting all the right people and information centralized and involved. Although still in its planning stages, count on big ideas coming soon. We’ve restructured Student Government and revised the Student Constitution. According to the Student Constitution that gives life to Student Government, we are obligated to revise the document every other year and as needed. Here you will find the revised Constitution for the 2015-2016 academic year. It features a simplified, retitled, and restructured the Student Government layout that we believe, based on our experiences, will allow the next Student Government to run more efficiently. The revised Constitution has also removed language and nationality requirements, which we believe better reflects our values as a student body in and illustrates a structure where there is equality among the Committees, Executive Board Members, and Class Representative that work equally hard to make NYU Shanghai a better place. Of course, the Student Constitution is ultimately for every student of NYU Shanghai and needs your approval. Therefore, we ask that you take the time to read through the document and vote for its ratification here on Orgsync. We’ve redesigned the Elections Process. As we enter elections season, beginning with the Information Meeting on Thursday, Mar. 5 at 12:30 - 1:45 p.m., room TBD (RSVP here), we also want to make every student aware that we have changed the Elections Process, aimed to make the journey for future Student Government candidates more insightful for both them and the student body. We have also added “Break Out Sessions” in which current Student Government members will host office hours for students to learn about the specific positions and duties before making a decision on what position they would like to run for. In addition, Student Government members will release “Job Descriptions” of each position to ensure that candidates will be applying with confidence, are properly qualified, and aware of the demands their desired position. The elections process will be running on an earlier timeline this year in order to provide adequate time for the transition of Student Government of 2014-2015 to 2015-2016. Elections will now include debates and recorded speeches between candidates to give more insight into the future leaders of NYU Shanghai and to give candidates multiple opportunities to represent themselves. We’re achieving more than our job description. Each position and member of Student Government is crucial to the success of the team. However, the work and effort put into the administration of Student Government are not always pronounced. Someone has to do the paperwork, the meetings, the emails, the accounting, and budgeting, but because this kind of work happens behind the scenes, people can easily assume that work isn’t being done at all. The reality is that Executive Board is largely administrative and to an extent, passive, particularly in comparison to the work of the Standing Committees, such as Student Life and Residence, Events, and Clubs that are active. However, there is always room to challenge the current roles of Executive Board with initiative to become more. This coming April, Executive Board will be holding a week of programs inspired by the spirit of the university. This Spring Semester comes with many changes, and with that, a change in attitude to forward the possibilities of the Executive Board. In this exciting stage of progress for NYU Shanghai, Student Government aims to interact more effectively with the student body and embraces the need to change and grow to achieve such goals. In many ways, the first years of our university will feature the challenges of knowing when to stick to tradition, or when to improve by moving forward and beyond precedent with new ideas and initiatives. I’ll close by connecting this all with our hopes for the Class of 2018, 2019 and all the future cohorts. The Inaugural Class is extremely proud of all that we accomplished and built from scratch - almost everything that exists at NYU Shanghai today is here due our imagination and dedication. However, all of us wish to see our university grow stronger from the seeds we’ve planted, and we leave it in the next classes’ hands to take what we’ve accomplished and seek more. Be transformative, innovative, imaginative and continue to take NYU Shanghai to higher places. While May may seem far away, it is fitting during this time of transition and revision to uphold the pioneering spirit inherent to all of us in the founding classes of NYU Shanghai. Good luck and go get‘em. This article was written by Roxanne Roman. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Ng Meizhi