The approaching Undergraduate Student Government elections will choose a president and vice president and also student senators.

While students see campaign signs and chalk on sidewalks around campus, they are also hearing promises from prospective and incumbent senators about what they are going to accomplish in the next year.

The Student Senate is the legislative body of the USG.

“Really what the Senate does is start projects,” said Yasmine Whittaker, the chair of policy and governance. “All the projects that you see with USG’s name on it start in the Senate.”

Some projects students might be familiar with are the reusable bags handed out to students during convocation and the street lights installed in the off-campus area.

Senators also brought about legislation that reduced GEC credit requirements from 191 credit hours to 181.

One of the most important things the USG Senate does is distribute funds to student groups. These funds come from a portion of the Student Activity Fee allocated to the Senate.

“The president has chosen to give the Senate some money for student organization funding,” said Anna Yonas, speaker of the Senate. “That is not meant to be the primary stop for funding for student organizations.”

The majority of student group funding is decided by the Council on Student Affairs. But the council has strict funding guidelines.

“The funding the Senate can appropriate is meant to fill the hold that [the Council on Student Affairs] cannot approve on its own,” Yonas said.

The Senate also passes resolutions that are official declarations of the Senate body. For example, the Senate passed a resolution to look into offering an interdisciplinary minor in leadership. This resolution has been sent to other students organizations to examine, but the idea began in the Senate.

“We start projects,” Whittaker said. “It’s kind of like a relay. We start projects and somebody else ends them.”

These resolutions are not mandatory for other groups to look at or accomplish.

“We can do things without writing legislation, as well,” Yonas said. “On South Campus, on the way to MarketPlace, some stairs were broken. Just by meeting with an administrator, those stairs got fixed.”

The USG Senate meets at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday on the second floor of the Ohio Union. All students are welcome to attend.