The newly proposed executive compensation bylaw will be the main focus for the student government meeting tonight at 7 p.m.

“Of course the bylaw change will be addressed and Don Stone will also come back with more information addressing how the constitution has been violated,” said student senate speaker Jason Sandidge.

At last week’s student government meeting the bylaw was tabled.

The bylaw has been authored to put a cap of $2,500 on the tuition waiver of the executive board of the student senate.

“We were told to be ready to stay a long time for the meeting, last week the bylaw was introduced and this week we will be asking questions and stating our opinions,” said Jordan Miller, a student senate member.

There are multiple options for the bylaw.

One option is the authors could choose to pull the bylaw, meaning there would be no further discussion over it and no need to vote on it.

Another option is the bylaw could be discussed and then voted on.

The last option is the bylaw could be tabled for another week pending more research.

If the bylaw is put to a vote, each senator will make a choice regarding his or her stance.

“One person is so this way and another is against it, I could come out with a completely different decision depending on the discussion,” Miller said.

Roberto Luna, a student senate member, elaborated on the voting process.

“It can go either way, two-thirds of the senate is needed to pass legislation which means that if more than 10 people vote no, then it won’t be passed,” Luna said.

The result of the bylaw will also be a way for the new student senators to be integrated in the student government’s operating process.

“This Wednesday, we will actually be able to see how it works and include our own input,” Miller said.

The concern on serving the student body directly has also been discussed.

“I think we are starting to see the issue and now that the committees are set we are starting to reach out to the students and will really try and change it,” Miller said.

Sandidge reinforced the need to have more action to benefit the students and less paper legislation.

“We can’t go green at Eastern if we are just using all of this paper, we need to get off of our rear ends and directly interact with the students,” Sandidge said.

At the meeting, Sandidge will also discuss the idea of “Comment for a Cruise.”

Within this program, student government members would ferry students to home football games in golf carts and the students would fill out a comment card where they can voice their opinions on their concerns.

The student government will meet today at 7 p.m. in the Arcola-Tuscola room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-7944 or

rjrodgers@eiu.edu.