Seven new Student Senate members were seated Wednesday, with four seats remaining vacant.

Joe Robbins, speaker of the senate, said although 12 applications were received for 11 open senate seats, only one was for an off campus seat. As a result, applications are now being accepted for off campus senate members only, until Feb. 1, he said.

In addition to seating the new senate members, the Student Senate Wednesday heard a special presentation on the current budget cuts from the President’s Council and debated a bylaw change regarding student representation.

The President’s Council, which is composed of interim President Lou Hencken and the four vice presidents, detailed for the senate details of budget cuts. Hencken and Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations, were not in attendence however, because they are currently in Washington D.C. seeking funding.

Eastern has been asked to return about $2.3 million to the state to cover an impending state budget deficit for this fiscal year because of dwindling tax revenue during the recession. The presentation informed senate members on the cuts, which will come from a slashed budget for equipment expenditures and recalling funds from various university departments and offices.

After a heated debate, senate members voted down a proposed bylaw change that would revert back to the old student representation system.

The current system, in its third semester of existence, requires senate members to work one office hour per week at Recognized Student Organization tables throughout campus to inform students on the senate’s activities. The new system also created an RSO Council for the same purpose.

A bylaw change proposal asked to return to the old system, where senate members each attended an RSO’s meeting on a regular basis to inform members of the senate’s activities.

“We’re basically reaching no one,” senate member Donna Fernandez said about the current system.

Much discussion took place on the potential for either system to reach more students. While the current system seems to have more potential, it is not working the way it was intended, senate members said.

The bylaw change in question would have been seen as a temporary solution until a better solution could be reached. However, the change was voted down.

In other business, the Student Senate also approved a new RSO, discussed one other bylaw change and two bills for allocating money to two student government events.

The Eastern Illinois University Student Federation, an

organization set to advance and promote educational and political issues, became an official RSO.

The second bylaw change, which did not receive as much discussion as the first, removed mention of senate staff from the bylaws since senate staff no longer exists.

Two bills were presented to allocate money for expenses of the Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Committee meeting the first weekend in February and the Conference on Student Government Associations to take place later in February.

The IBHE-SAC meeting is taking place in Danville, and the bill regarding that meeting will allocate $100 from the senate budget for a university vehicle participants will drive there and back.

The other bill will allocate $2,893 to cover expenses for three senate members attending the Conference on Student Government Associations, which will take place Feb. 23 through 26.

Rebroadcasts of senate meetings are now being shown at 5 p.m. Thursdays on local cable channel 15. However, this week’s meeting will not be rebroadcast.