The government department has a Student Advisory Board (SAB), which serves as a liaison between majors and departmental faculty. The SAB consists of GOV and IRL majors in rough proportion to the numbers of each major.
Each fall semester, GOV and IRL majors elect representatives to the SAB. Typically, the SAB is composed of 8 students, with two representatives from each class of students (i.e., sophomores, juniors, and seniors) and a senior chair and junior chair-elect. The highest vote-getting junior becomes the "chair-elect"; this person serves as the SAB chair during his or her senior year.
Duties of the SAB include meetings with faculty and potential faculty, meetings with SAB members to plan and organize events such as lectures, and miscellaneous tasks (including the annual Government-Economics Softball game and Trivia Night).
Meetings with Faculty Members and Candidates for Faculty Positions
SAB members, or a subcommittee of the SAB, meets twice each academic year with department faculty.
When the department is conducting a search to fill a faculty position, the candidate meets with SAB members for lunch and then writes up their opinions on the various candidates.
When a member of the department is coming up for tenure and/or promotion, members of the SAB meet with the department chair to discuss their views on the quality of the person's teaching.
Help with Course Evaluations
Working with the department's academic assistant, Sharon Moody, SAB members help to tabulate quantitative data for course evaluations.