Student Senate will look at a proposal to grant the academic affairs committee to look at the possibility of extending Booth Library’s hours.

“Senate has the right to go and seek this out through the academic affairs committee, and this proposal will let the academic affairs committee actively seek out and extend library hours,” said Student Senate Speaker Isaac Sandidge.

The senate will discuss the proposal at its meeting at 7 p.m. today in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Sandidge said if approved, the extension in library hours would not happen this year because the budget for the year has already been drawn up, but added the extension would probably be put into effect around the beginning of next year.

“We would need more staff and utilities for the extra hours as well,” Sandidge said.

If the proposal were approved, the academic affairs committee would need to plan for how to go about extending the hours.

The senate will also discuss a proposal to change the requirement for senate members’ office hours from two to four hours a week.

“We thought four hours would be better,” Sandidge said.

He added the extension would give senate members more time to review proposals.

The senate will also discuss a proposal to have off-campus senate members go to residence hall meetings. Currently, only on-campus senate members attend those meetings.

“I don’t know why this proposal is so late because, if we have on-campus and off-campus (senate members) go to these meetings, then we will double our pool there,” Sandidge said.

He added it was up to the off-campus senate member’s discretion to decide what residence hall meeting he or she wanted to attend.

Sandidge said going to a residence hall meeting would count as two office hours, so that would give the senate members incentive to go.

There will also be a meeting for all students on Oct. 29 in the Grand Ballroom of the union.

“There will be extra seating and a podium where all students can come in and talk about issues,” Sandidge said. “There will be a meet-and-greet before the meeting, and the event will be catered by Panther Catering, so there will be lots of food.”

Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or haholm@eiu.edu.