It’s the same old story, year after year: students elect peer representatives, peer representatives set goals and promise they’ll do more than the previous year’s group and then these students either don’t do substantial work or they take months to start working on initiatives that matter.

This seems to be the case for this year’s student-elected representation in Senate.

I will readily admit that Senate has accomplished one goal they said they wanted to work on this year: visibility.

At the beginning of the semester, a number of articles we published concerning Senate held that the group wanted to increase its visibility on campus. I think Senate has done a great job of making themselves visible this year, but through that visibility it’s clear they’ve fallen flat when it comes to doing what they were elected to do: represent students.

We’re approximately three months into the school year, and Senate has brought very little legislation to the floor. They passed a bill concerning Freshman Forum at the beginning of the semester and passed another bill on Nov. 7 — a bill that will change the process of how students become part of the homecoming court in years to come. Such a small portion of campus is affected by this that it’s almost not worth mentioning. 832 people voted in this year’s homecoming election, which is only about 12 percent of UNA’s student enrollment.

The most beneficial push from Senate this year is undoubtedly their effort to institute a smoking ban on campus. The group said they would present a bill if they reached 1,000 signatures by Oct. 31, but then pushed back their date to Nov. 7. It’s still in the works, so hopefully the campus community will see something come out of that initiative soon.

But for a group whose overarching name is the Student Government Association, they seem to be both slow to action and missing the mark.

SGA President Laura Giles said she has noticed the delay and that she has encouraged the group to not lose focus on legislation that could be discussed or passed at the present time while senators are conducting research for future initiatives.

The group has kicked around lots of good ideas this semester, in fact. Setting up printers for students to utilize around various parts of campus — which was brought up at the Sept. 26 Senate meeting — is a service I would definitely support. I have a feeling other students on campus would, too.

It was also reported from the same meeting that Senate was considering hosting a debate on the merits of having a lottery in Alabama. Though the Nov. 21 date was said to be tentative, there doesn’t seem to be any further plans for the event.

Where are the plans and promotions for solid ideas like these? We’ve covered Senate each week for the duration of the semester, and we haven’t seen any reports of further planning.

While I’m sure I’ve failed to acknowledge each good effort Senate has made this semester, I can’t be 100 percent certain because their weekly meeting minutes haven’t been posted for the public since earlier this spring.

The bottom line is this: Being visible is great, but it doesn’t mean anything if you’re not being beneficial and pushing for real change on campus. Don’t fully lose sight of what’s going on around you in your pursuit to make changes that won’t take effect for months — years, even — to come.