Student Senate voted unanimously to approve the Indian Student Association as an official registered student organization during its meeting Wednesday night.

Executive Vice President Zac Cohen said he did not hesitate to vote for the organization’s approval. The great organizational skills the group has and its positive message and purpose made Cohen’s vote an easy one, he said.

“It’s one of those things where when you see the RSO being brought to you, it’s like OK, that makes sense,” Cohen said. “Everything they’re doing sounds perfect. Why aren’t they already a thing?”

Student body president Rebecca Cash said she agreed with Cohen.

She said she was impressed to see that the organization already has upcoming events planned. She said she is also eager to see how the new RSO will engage with the rest of the student body.

“They already have events planned, so they’re ready to hit the ground running,” Cash said. “They’re ready to get stuff up and out, get their name out there and just inform people on who they are, what they do, just like any other multicultural organization or just any organization in general.”

Senator Seth Yeakel said voting to approve the organization as a RSO was a no-brainer.

He said Eastern is already a diverse campus, which is a good thing, but that diversity needs to be reflected in the RSOs students can engage with. He said he believes approving ISA as a RSO will help do exactly that.

“Eastern Illinois University needs to be able to promote the diversity that’s found in its walls,” Yeakel said.

Having more multicultural RSOs at Eastern also helps to expand the rest of the student body’s understanding of different cultures, he said.

“It is important for us to embrace that diversity, and creating these different organizations creates a home for people coming in from other countries and also people here that are interested in those countries and their history,” Yeakel said.

Cash also reminded everyone at Wednesday’s meeting about student election dates.

She said voting for executive board members and senators would begin at 8 a.m. April 1 and end at 11:59 p.m. on April 2.

Cash said all Eastern students would receive an email inviting them to vote on Panthermail.

Votes are automatically tallied, and the official results will be in April 10, Cohen said.

Senators also shared their experiences at Springfield, whereat the Student Action Team lobbied for Eastern students’ interests, during the meeting. Those who participated left early Wednesday morning and arrived back that same afternoon.

Cohen said he appreciated having the opportunity to observe and learn from how government is run in person.

“It’s just cool to see how they govern as opposed to what you hear, what you might see on the TV or news. It’s a lot different when you’re actually there,” he said.

Cohen said he would have to describe the conditions in which state leaders operate as “organized chaos,” adding that he was impressed to see how well everyone could adapt to sudden changes in schedule in so little time.

“Everything kind of seems to come together,” he said.

Cash said she was grateful to have had the chance to converse with Illinois State Sen. Sue Rezin.

Rezin helped to connect Cash with someone who gave great advice regarding event planning and promotion during the state capitol visit, and Cash said the information she learned from her conversations would be very helpful with her own future career.

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