Written by Brittany McComb

The Bible is full of messed up people who were honest with each other and grew up together in their faith, said Eric Weaver, Associated Students president.

Weaver said this is the image he has of this year’s AS staff. Faith and vulnerability can bring about an outpouring of service, he said.

“There’s sort of a heart among the leaders this year about service,” he said. “We’d really like to model that this year and let that permeate the community – all the way down to the freshmen.”

Currently, the AS Senate is in the stage of character development, he said – and a passion to serve among senators is foundational in his vision for this year.

“I think it needs to start with character and having leaders understand their role. Then going out and living lives of leadership.”

Kelly Adams, Stewart senator, got Weaver’s message.

“The message of service is pumped into everything we do,” she said.

One of the dangers of working in the same office and sharing the same goals is to become an elitist group and lose focus of caring for the community at large, Weaver said. Weaver said he hopes to provide an example of leadership that will prevent this potential division.

Weaver is partnering with other leadership organizations, such as the Student Missionary Union, to collaborate on events in an effort to quell any elitist spirit within the leadership teams, he said. In addition, he said the two organizations have begun to meet on Sunday nights to pray together.

Weaver said he hopes this spirit of unity trickles down. To make an effort to blur the lines that naturally divide clubs, cliques and cafe tables, AS launched a program called CSI, he said. CSI stands for club service initiative; it will offer incentives – and possibly funding – for clubs to collaborate together, rather than always working alone, to serve La Mirada and the larger Los Angeles community.

“I’d like to see a sort of mixing of the crowd,” Weaver said. “AS obviously can’t completely change things, but I’d like to see more integration happen between the clubs on campus.”

Weaver has already had an influence on Horton South Senator Cameron Spencer, Spencer said. Weaver is open to AS senators’ differing opinions and Spencer wants to emulate that attitude with the students in Horton.

“I think that is one of my goals,” he said. “To best serve my constituency by hearing their advice…their opinions.”

The suggestions students give to Spencer and senators like him can turn into successful events such as last week’s Splash! event and nationball dorm competition, Spencer said.

The success of such events, though, is dependent on the students, said Emilee Sutherland, vice president of marketing and communications.

“It has to do with the energy of the freshman class and more upper classmen staying on campus who know traditions and can pump people up for events,” she said.

Sutherland is working with the AS advertising director to figure out new, creative ways to spread the word about upcoming events, as well as conduct monthly polls to gauge how well students are responding to the marketing of events and to the events themselves.

One of the ways to communicate with students is the AS web site.

The web site, Spencer said, is potentially one of the most interactive ways AS can serve the student body.

“A huge improvement [in AS], in my opinion, is the web site,” said Spencer. “Biola’s doing a great job of keeping students informed.”

One of the prime interactions students can have through the web site is by way of comment boxes, which Weaver said are checked and responded to regularly.