North Carolina Democratic Representative Ty Harrell spoke at Wednesday night’s Student Senate meeting, encouraging the student senators to continue getting involved politically.

“I was invited by [Student Senate President] Greg Doucette,” Harrell said. “He thought it’d be a good idea to show how you grow from being a Student Government senator to an elected official.”

Harrell emphasized the importance of the students being involved in the political process throughout his speech.

“I want these next generations of leaders to take away the importance of being involved, and develop their careers and networks,” he said.

According to Student Senator Scott Lassiter, it was good to hear from a younger state leader even though Lassiter said he doesn’t agree with Harrell’s ideology.

“But it was nice to hear that he’s someone who’s more of a consensus builder than a straight party person,” Lassiter, a sophomore in political science, said.

A part of Harrell’s speech that Lassiter said he took as essential was the lack of youth in state government “and that really should hit home to all college students that we need to elect people who are in touch with our needs and the challenges we face.”

Another speaker at Wednesday night’s Senate meeting was senator emiritus from three years ago Scott Stephenson who talked about the tradition of basketball campout.

Stephenson, a graduate in economics, now works as a salesman for explosives, but during his four-year tenure as a student senator, he helped to bring back the tradition of basketball campout after it was suspended for several years.

“These guys have seen the manual, but none of them have actually done a campout,” he said.

Lassiter said Stephenson was invited to energize the senators to plan for this tradition.

“If we plan campout poorly and it’s a disaster, the administration will limit us from doing it in the future,” Lassiter said.