On Wednesday, I sat in on a Senate meeting. Originally, this was for the purpose of writing what I thought of our Student Senate from a first-year student’s perspective. I figured that I, being somebody interested in government myself, would likely find the meeting interesting — seeing senators making real change in a democratic way, I figured the worst thing that could happen is that I might get bored.

I was wrong.

By the time I left I realized that the Senate wasn’t what I hoped. I had seen them act immaturely and trivialize a serious concern in a way that harms students and disrespects staff.

Specifically, I’m referring to the first two pieces of legislation discussed last Wednesday night; 24 SR: Decorum Act and 40 SR: Transit Operations Fee Act.

First: the Decorum Act. In short, this bill covered the Do’s and Don’ts of the Student Senate; rules that would ideally make Senate more respectable. It had been voted on by the Senate to change the agenda and move this to the first item of discussion.

One particular line of the bill addressed the Senate dress code — that this year there would be none. This should have been a quick discussion to move onto more pressing matters and guests, who were now waiting. Instead the Senate felt the need to argue.

This lack of dress code ironically concerned those who worried about the professionalism of the Senate (a trait they failed to represent while arguing). Others disputed that a more formal dress code would interfere with their labs and day to day activities.

In total, the silly debate lasted a grand total of 33 minutes, including amendments inside of amendments, attempts by one side to run out the time for debate, several giggles, three different calls for decorum (during a bill about decorum) and extensions on the time of debate. By the end, the senate passed the original legislation with only 12 “No” votes against 34 “Yes” votes.

The Senate then moved on to the Transit Operations Fee Act, which would have had a much more substantial effect on the student body: whether to raise a transit fee for the school by $12*, due to the new fleet of Wolfline buses.

At first, discussion for this seemed to maintain course; budget-related questions were asked to the representatives about why they needed the increase, whether the increase could realistically be reduced and what would happen if it was not passed.

However, following this the floor debate got much more sidetracked; questions about the logistics of the buses lead into criticisms of Wolfline. After a few minutes, what had started as a rational debate of a fee changed into a referendum on Senator dissatisfaction with Wolfline.

Students in the Senate forgot that Wolfline didn’t just affect them, that their day to day lives did not dictate the experiences that the students they represent had. The Senate also neglected the fact that they were not in any position to actually change the logistics of the Wolfline service.

Even after hearing that if NCSU Transportation didn’t receive the necessary fee increase they would likely have to draw funding from parking passes (a smaller group), the Senate decided it was more important to punish Wolfline than give them the funds to fix problems. They failed the bill.

It’s important to note the disrespect NCSU Transportation was treated with. They had come to the meeting as first topic of debate and then were forced to sit through a 33-minute debate on dress code because of an agenda change, only to have the legislation they needed shot down in the end because some senators did not “like” Wolfline.

I could call the Senate silly for arguing about dress code for half an hour, and I could call them naive to think that it’s their job to punish Wolfline, but just calling them those things doesn’t address the actual problem with the Senate — they detach themselves from the student body.

Toward the end of the decorum debate, one particular comment from Senator Coleman Simpson, a third-year studying political science and agricultural education, hit this problem right on the head. He mentioned that often the student body feels that the Student Senate doesn’t take their job seriously, that they’re seen as disconnected from the body.

The Student Senate does have that reputation, as evident from that meeting. They didn’t think of the representatives from NCSU Transportation and they didn’t think of future students needing parking passes; they rarely thought of anybody but themselves.

So frankly, if the Senate really wants to fix their image, they might consider looking a little further than the way they dress and instead taking a look at the way they act.

*Editor’s note: This article has been updated on Sept. 19 with the accurate proposed transit fee