Sophia Sarver, a graduate assistant for the Student Life Office, said the alternatives to the Black Lives Matter Flag that Student Senate voted on during their Dec. 5 hearing will not be decided until a Diversity Action Council is established.

Sarver said she and Ceci Brinker, director of student life and adviser for Student Senate, are focusing on creating a council that is “as positive and inclusive as possible” to create appropriate alternatives.

She said the Diversity Action Council will likely “collaborate” with Student Senate in deciding alternatives to flying the BLM flag during African-American Heritage Month.

Student Senate also passed emergency bill 18-19-18, releasing $258.51 to help provide marketing materials for the Black Student Union-sponsored Miss Black EIU Pageant.

In exchange for the release of $258.51, Student Senate gets a full page of advertisement space in the booklets contestants of Miss Black EIU have to sell. What Student Senate decides to put in this ad space is up to them.

Nia Douglas, senator and previous contestant for Miss Black EIU, said contestants have to sell $500-worth of booklets for the pageant.

Additionally, she said she understands how much money each contestant spends out of their own pockets, in terms of dresses and makeup, to win the scholarship.

So receiving the money can really make a positive impact on the contestants and the pageant as a whole, she said.

Student Senate Speaker Tarve’a Durant said he thought supplying the money, which will go toward funding for a display case, five posters, a backdrop banner and a hallway banner, according to the bill, is a good way to show the Senate’s support of the pageant and Black Student Union.

Thus, Student Senate unanimously passed emergency bill 18-19-18.

Also at the meeting, Beth Gillespie, interim director of the Office of Civic Engagement and Volunteerism, and assistant director Crystal Brown, requested $750 from Student Senate to help fund the Panther Service Day, which is set for April 6, during the audience participation portion of the meeting.

Gillespie said the $750 is used to purchase T-shirts and provide transportation for the student volunteers who participate, and since the number of Eastern volunteers is increasing, so is the cost of supporting it.

Executive Vice President Zachary Cohen said bill 18-19-07, a bill that outlines the creation of a Judicial Research Committee, was tabled to next week’s meeting.

“Pretty much the purpose of this Committee is to look at our university internally and also institutions similar to ours to see how they have Judicial Branches, how it operates and what they do, (and then) take all that information and make job descriptions,” he said.

Sarver said there will be more updates on the alternatives to flying the BLM flag within the next couple weeks when the creation of the Diversity Action Council is closer to being finished.

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.edu.