Eight Park University students visited the Baker University Student Senate on Feb. 24 in the first-ever exchange event.

“It was an incredible opportunity for us to try to collaborate with another student senate organization,” Rachel Haley, BU student body president, said. “It was really an educational night for us.”

In an attempt to continue finding ways for possible improvement, Student Senate invited the Park students to see how they establish involvement and maximize funding.

“[These exchanges] open your eyes to possibilities that you may have been blind to,” Haley said. “It’s really important that you step back and put aside your rivals and differences to figure out how you can be a part of change for the better.”

After a quick icebreaker and the conclusion of Student Senate’s bi-monthly meeting, Haley turned the focus to how the Park students run their organization.

“They had really great ideas,” she said. “We want to make sure we are evaluating others in order to improve our own system.”

Because of the contrast of Park’s non-traditional student structure, Alec Fox, freshman class representative, looked for ways to improve on the two schools’ similarities despite the differences.

“It was interesting to get to meet a different group of people,” Fox said. “Their culture is much different than ours, but it was interesting to see how their student body is still getting involved.”

Public Relations Chairman Luke Miltz similarly found interest in learning from the Park students’ ideas.

“I think it’s important to know that other student senates struggle with the same things that we do,” Miltz said. “It was also really nice to get to show off a little bit of our campus and to get to connect with other student leaders in Kansas.”

Within the meeting itself, Student Senate continued discussion on current Baker topics including Student Activities Council’s (SAC) challenges with available space for events and an update on the progress of raising money for the House of Hanover gate.

On March 10, Student Senate will welcome President Lynne Murray to inform her about the progress that it has been making along with other student-related issues.