The Student Senate held its final meeting Wednesday night, concluding fall semester business for Student Government, including the senate seat elections.

Senate swore in 21 new members following the elections, seven from the newly formed United Party of Students. Three-hundred eighty-seven students voted in the elections this semester, a number down from last fall’s 399 students.

One senate seat has not been filled because two candidates were tied for elections. Sarah Shaw from the Student United Party and Keith Darby from the United Party of Students both have 115 votes for the eighth at-large senate seat.

A run-off election will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union to decide which candidate will be elected to the final seat. The election will be open to all students, even those who voted in Monday and Tuesday’s general elections.

Megan Ogulnick was voted the new senate speaker.

The other nominees for the position were Tyson Holder, Adam Martinelli, and Tiffany Turner.

In other business, University Board’s Mainstage proposal of $10,980 was introduced as emergency legislation and passed the senate with a vote of 20-1, with one abstention. Mainstage’s proposal aims to bring musicians and performers to Eastern in the spring semester.

The Special Events proposal was also introduced as emergency legislation, for $25,600. The Special Events proposal included continuing Up All Night events as well as the new Pantherstock festival later in the spring.

The Special Events proposal passed with a vote of 16-5.

Both proposals were introduced as emergency legislation because of the short time available to contract musicians and performers for the next year.

The new Student Government Web site is now uploaded to Eastern’s servers and is ready to be updated with next semester’s information.

The Suicide Awareness Initiatives Committee received approval on its bylaws to make it an ad-hoc committee within the senate. The senate approved the bylaws by a vote of 18-2-1, also recognizing that the committee must be re-approved every two years.

After a lengthy discussion, senate also approved the reimbursement of $103.43 to Student Executive Vice President Levi Bulgar for travel costs of going to Springfield last Thursday.

Bulgar found out Nov. 27 he was appointed to Illinois Governor Blogjevich’s Campus Safety and Student Mental Health Task Force and spent Thursday meeting with the Department of Homeland Security.

Senate member Karen Armour was voted as the Senator of the Semester, with other nominees being senate members Angelina Montleon and Jeff Melanson.

Student Senate Speaker Adam Martinelli gave his State of the Senate address at the beginning of the meeting.

He outlined his thanks to senate members for helping him achieve his three goals for the senate in the Fall 2007 semester: to organize senate and stay on deadlines, to update the Student Government Web site and to build stronger relationships between senate members.

Student Body President Cole Rogers also gave his State of the University address, focusing on what he called a large amount of change over the course of the last semester, and good change at that, he said.

Rogers expressed his admiration and thanks to Jeff Melanson, Karen Armour, Rich Higginbotham and Levi Bulgar for each spearheading new movements and initiatives on campus.

“Change is good, and change is necessary for progress,” Rogers said. “To the student body, I ask you: Is good enough good for you? It’s our job to keep changes happening to make students’ lives better.”