Speeches were given about the potential new Speaker of the Senate at the student senate meeting Wednesday evening.

Speaker of the Senate William Outzen is running unopposed for his own position and is running on a platform of overseeing the implementation of the bylaw revisions he has talked about all semester, restoring Registered Student Organization initiative and improving senate cohesion among the senators and executive board.

“A senate that can do that outside the senate is a senate that will not tear itself to pieces during debate,” Outzen said.

Outzen said at some point debate will ensue and if the senate cannot work together, they will fall apart. He said this senate is the closest one he has seen in a long time and he wants to keep it up.

He said personal goals he has include keeping up the “1st Thursday” event and making it more organized as well as promoting outreach to other organizations.

Outzen also said he hopes to implement an RSO Initiative, where senators will be paired with a student organization to connect with the RSO and get the word out about student government. His third goal is to find new ways for students to participate and be interested to run.

“One of the ways is to go to the very first hall meetings which are mandatory,” Outzen said.

He also wants to get to know people on a personal level and get them interested in running.

Outzen had two senators speak on his behalf. He had sophomore psychology major Claude Abdoulaye-Pedila and junior political science major Rachel Kaiser speak on his behalf.

Abdoulaye-Pedila said she has never seen a senate so close until Outzen stepped in.

“Will has done a really good job bringing the senate closer together compared to the speaker last year, last year we had a lot of tension.” Abdoulaye-Pedila said.

Kaiser said she was one of Outzen’s appointees. She talked about how responsible he is, how good he is at keeping his word and he respects other people’s opinions, which is important in a senate full of diverse people and opinions.

The senate voted on a pair of emergency bills to move money around and introduced a pair of bills that included a new RSO and revisions to how the senate conducts elections. The emergency bills were to allow the senate to remove $128.05 for finals activities and $87.65 for a bonding event for the senate. The votes for both emergency bills passed.

The other bills were tabled until next week.

Samuel Nusbaum can be reached at 581-2812 or at scnusbaum@eiu.edu.