One of my favorite professors at Calvin says often that students have more power here than they know. After all, we pay the bills, we sign up for classes, we evaluate professors. And historically, when we don’t like how things are going, we write angry opinion pieces about it in this very newspaper. But what can Calvin students really do to influence decisions like budget cuts, faculty hiring and alcohol and drug policies?

In certain medieval universities like the University of Bologna, the student body determined everything from course content to faculty pay. Professors could be fined for showing up late to class or not covering all the required material by the end of the class. Probably mercifully, that’s not the case here. We need to find other ways to speak up.

In principle, Calvin does a good job of providing avenues for student input. There is at least one student on each of Calvin’s governance committees, and student senators can speak (but not vote) at faculty senate.

“From their participation at faculty senate to their key contributions on committees, students lend a vital perspective,” said English professor Jennifer Holberg, vice-chair of faculty senate. Holberg pointed to student-informed decisions she’s witnessed on the Core Curriculum Committee and the Educational Policy Committee, two groups that can directly affect students’ academic experiences.

This kind of student participation on committees has actually changed things. Bill Warners, president of student senate, sits on the Planning and Priorities Committee (PPC), one of the groups that approved the recent retirement incentive for faculty and staff.

It was Warners who suggested that a letter should also go out to students about the program. “They hadn’t thought of that before,” Warners said. If you appreciated being officially notified that a program like that was happening rather than hearing it through the tangled Calvin grapevine, thank student senate.

Warners pointed out the reason students need to speak up when they have opinions and concerns: “[Administration] assume[s] everything’s okay if nothing gets said.”

Student senate has a responsibility to represent student’s opinions and interests in administrative decision-making. Chimes has a responsibility to make sure they’re doing that, but we also want to help student senate by educating the student body. If you have strong thoughts or feelings about something you read in Chimes or anything else going on at Calvin, let student senate know so they can bring those concerns to the people who can change things.

Even better, tell us too. Put your thoughts in writing and send them to our opinion section. Hundreds of other students might have the very same concern, and there’s strength in numbers. Warners told me that even 15 students who really care about an issue can grab the attention of administration.

So while you can’t fire that one professor who just never quite wraps up by 2:20, you can make your voice heard from the basement of Commons Annex to the president’s office. Chimes and student senate are here to help.