The College of Law’s student government, the Student Bar Association, has a lineup of semester activities in the works, including a blood drive and the annual Barristers Ball and Mel Shinn Day events.
The SBA’s executive board met last Friday to review and approve its budget for the 2010-11 school year and discuss plans.
Mel Shinn Day, named in honor of a law student from the Class of 1966 who passed away at a young age, is a day full of events that allow law students to relax while at school. This year’s Mel Shinn Day, which will take place Sept. 17, will feature competitions in basketball, tennis, dodgeball and bowling, as well as a 5k run. Also, participants in any of the athletic competitions will be entered in a drawing for Dean Susan Poser’s tickets to the Nebraska vs. Missouri game on Oct. 30.
Third year class Vice-President Samantha Pelster is excited about this year’s installment of the popular event.
“It is an opportunity for law school students to come together and balance work and play, and a good way to get to know your fellow students outside of class,” Pelster said.
Executive President Josh Wunderlich aims to make SBA a more effective representative of the student body at the College of Law.
“One of the things we do really well is plan social events, but I have a feeling that that’s all people think we do,” Wunderlich said. “We want to start being what we’re supposed to be — the student government of the student body.”
To help the organization better represent the student body, Wunderlich would like to initiate a five-year action plan for improving the SBA. He challenged the executive board members to begin to envision what SBA could become.
“I want people to start thinking about what they think the SBA means now to the school and what they would like it to mean to the school five years from now,” Wunderlich said. “We have the capacity to do more.”
To help SBA become more representative of the student body this year, SBA will soon be sending out a survey to all law school students in order to get a better feel for their perception of SBA.