For the past several weeks, Campus Senate has been attempting to amend its constitution to restore its power as a legislative governing body within the College. As a result of a 2018 revision of its constitution, Campus Senate was relegated to an advisory body, submitting proposals to the Office of the President. The goal of the 2018 revision was to strengthen the Senate’s ability to enact change, but the opposite effects have occurred.

Senate co-Chair Aidan Cullen ’26 described the proposed amendments in an email to the Collegian: “We are hoping to make the procedural parts of Campus Senate clearer, restore legislative power and shift our authority to areas that are considered ‘shared general concern,’ meaning important to faculty, staff and students.”

Campus Senate is composed of six students, two staff (Senior Director of Campus Life James Jackson, Library Services Supervisor Alex Mann) and two faculty members (Associate Professor of Biology Natalie Wright, Professor of Economics Jaret Treber), representing the major groups that Campus Senate represents. There are also three “At-Large Members” from the administration. Campus Senate meets monthly to discuss campus issues that contain overlap between those groups and draft resolutions.

Campus Senate has historically passed significant legislation on all sorts of issues: It wrote campus-wide protest policy, created the Kenyon Good Samaritan policy, rewrote Kenyon Title IX policies and reformed division housing.

In 2016, Campus Senate reflected on its smoking policy from 2012, in line with Ohio state law, to designate specific smoking zones. This policy was not enforced by the College, inspiring several members to push for a redefinition of Campus Senate and a redrafting of its constitution. 

This redrafting, beginning in February 2016, was only finalized in October 2018. Between those dates Campus Senate only sporadically functioned as a body, causing trouble for groups such as Student Council, whose actions at the time had to be approved by Campus Senate. Since then, campus bodies like Student Council have disentangled their organizations from Campus Senate, further isolating the Senate.

With the 2018 constitutional redrafting, the Senate not only became an advisory body, it was reduced from 21 members to 13. Since these changes, the pace at which Campus Senate performs has slowed to a standstill: Its “Past Work and Accomplishments” page online lists three policies passed since 2018, and none in the past four years.

Reflecting on the state of the governing body, Cullen wrote to the Collegian: “Campus Senate has struggled with its identity because of its founding mission, which was really broad in being one of the first spaces to legislate issues related to campus life. It has since been reshaped to become an advisory body, ceding a lot of its authority to senior staff, which holds immense implications for what the Senate can do for Kenyon’s campus.” 

Student Council President Christiane Betfarhad ’26, though, notes an important distinction between Campus Senate and Student Council: money. “I’m not sure how Campus Senate used to operate before I came to the College in 2022, but from my understanding … Student Council has a budget to make changes for students whereas Campus Senate does not,” she said. While the changes to Campus Senate’s constitution would grant it a greater degree of autonomy, it would not necessarily strengthen any enforcement mechanism.

But Cullen maintained in her email to the Collegian that these changes will still open the door for more effective legislation. “Moving us from an advisory to legislative body holds Campus Senate to the standard of actually having a plan for all of our policies which will provide clearer enforcement mechanisms,” she said.

The Collegian approached several students for comment, getting a resounding response of “Huh?” For many students, it was a shock to learn that there is a campus senate at all. As Nicolas Williams ’26 articulated to the Collegian, “I know of Campus Senate because they’re in the emails from Student Council, but I ignore all the information because it seems pointless.” Sadie Martinez ’27 put it even more succinctly: “I don’t know what the campus senate is.”  

Campus Senate’s task is now to get approval of these constitutional amendments from student, faculty and staff councils. Betfarhad told the Collegian about the Student Council approval process, writing, “These proposed changes will impact the way Campus Senate operates, so Student Council wants to ensure that we are incredibly thorough in our understanding of the document and what the future could hold for both Campus Senate and Student Council.”

Cullen is confident that restoring Campus Senate’s legislative powers will go a long way to promoting the organization’s authority, and that a strong Campus Senate is best for everyone. “Campus Senate is a super promising body that is currently really ineffectual. In my opinion, Kenyon is currently facing a problem of student apathy from our perceived lack of agency over decision-making on campus. Giving students another way to influence decision-making alongside faculty and staff will be a step in the right direction,” Cullen concluded.