Education majors from East St. Louis or Peoria may be in for a surprise. Eastern does not offer student teaching in that area.

At tonight’s Student Senate meeting, Student Senate member Jeff Melanson will introduce a resolution that will recommend that the university include student teaching districts across the entire state within the next two years.

Students from these areas currently have to drive longer distances or move.

“Students want to be able to go down and student teach in whatever area they live in,” Melanson, who is the Academic Affairs Committee chair, said.

If the resolution passes, Melanson may present the idea to the Council for Teacher Education. He would also present a couple of alternative ideas to the council.

One option would allow students who live in these districts to receive a discount in tuition, Melanson said.

In other business, two bylaw changes will be introduced.

The first bylaw change would remove the provision that the Housing Committee chair has to assign on-campus Student Senate members to attend hall council meetings.

The second bylaw change would add a new provision that would assign all Student Senate members a Recognized Student Organization or hall council meeting to attend.

Members would attend all the meetings of the group they are assigned to and act as liaison between the groups.

“We’d (Student Senate) be able to branch out to different RSOs, and we’d be able to develop a relationship with the students within that RSO,” said Student Senate Speaker Kent Ohms.

Students could relay problems to that particular member and be directed to the proper member or committee that would handle that problem, Ohms said.

Also, Student Senate will vote on three different conference allocations.

The Conference on Student Government Associations and the Illinois Board of Higher Education Student Advisory Committee are asking for travel and fee funds.

The Illinois Student Government Association Conference committee members are asking that funds be transferred from a separate account to cover expenses incurred to expand the conference to more schools.

The Student Senate meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Arcola-Tuscola Room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.