With people leaving, there have been positions opening up on the Student Senate. One position was filled at a recent senate meeting. Isaac Brown, a liberal arts student, was sworn into the Student Senate at the Feb. 6 meeting.
He said he is looking to make a difference and feels the senate can provide that avenue.
“I have to look at myself and say, ‘I’m playing video games (which I don’t do anymore) and I’m just wasting time,’” Brown said. “I could be doing something.”
So far, he said he has enjoyed being a part of the Student Senate.
“The cool thing I like about being in the Student Senate office is people approach me with their problems and I can help guide them through it,” Brown said.
Kristin Zeier, vice president of public relations for the Senate, met Brown in a botany class last fall. She was in recruiting mode for the Horticulture Club she helped start and she said she thought Brown would be a good fit for the club.
“I think he was responsible for getting the Horticulture Club off the ground,” Zeier said. “He competitively brought (the idea of the club) up and then he made a Facebook group and just started gathering people and recruiting people who would be interested.”
This opened Zeier’s eyes to what type of person Brown is, she said. Zeier said Brown was persistent and showed initiative to get tasks completed, traits the senate looks for when bringing in new members. She also said Brown showed another important trait – compassion.
“I think he has a genuine interest to participate with change,” Zeier said. “What makes a good senator is having a general interest in people’s needs, not to be afraid take action and to be able to contribute to things.”
Brown is a veteran, having served in the Marines and has two daughters. He is also classified as a non-traditional student being older than the age of 25.
“I think he represents the every day college student here. He’s a dad. He’s not here on a free ride. He has a lot of responsibilities outside of school,” said Anna Marie Hoffman, the advisor of the Horticulture Club.
“He has an umbrella over all of our students not only because he is a veteran, but he has so many other things about him (that help him identify with other students).”
However, Brown said he strives to be more than just average or typical because he wants to step out of boundaries and work with people on issues, including diversity. Brown said his biggest goal is working with other senate members and students to get the center of issues on campus. Brown lived in places like Tennessee and Florida before moving to Wisconsin. He said prior to moving here, he was around racism and sexism and fell into traps of ignorance.
“I’m starting to enlighten myself, but I’m white, I’m a male and have been privileged,” Brown said. “If you say I’m average, I feel that has been a hindrance because it has added to my ignorance in a way.”
He said he was even around that when was enlisted. He said he, like some others, laughed at racist and sexist jokes in which he heard. He said when he realized the ignorance of that behavior, he wanted to change and bring more compassion into his life.
“I hope I’m turning it into a positive,” Brown said. “I hope I can help make the world a better place with the little I can do.”
Caroline Russell, the vice president of legislative affairs for the senate, met Brown about a month ago after Zeier introduced Brown to members of the senate.
She said when Brown first started meeting senate members, he wanted to know what issues each member was facing. He talked to Russell on a variety of topics, including state issues like the funding of technical colleges, which surprised Russell, she said.
“A lot of students I meet don’t know a lot about state issues, but he did,” Russell said. “He seems well informed.”
Russell, who has been on senate since last year, said it is difficult for a student to be added this late into the school year because of the intricacies of the senate. She said it is important to know and understand parliamentary procedure, because like with other governing bodies, the Student Senate operates under that model as well.
Russell said it isn’t just the parliamentary procedure, but it is the cohesiveness of the group as well. She said the senate is much like a band, some members hang out together outside the senate and there is a lot of humor with the group. However, she said Brown has shown signs of being able to work with other members of the senate.
“It’s something we have had problems with in the past with new senators, but we thought since he has had a working relationship with Kristen prior to coming to the senate, it would help him feel more comfortable.”
Following his tenure at Madison College, Brown said he would like to transfer to a school for engineering because he would like to attain a career in sustainable technology.