The Student Senate approved three new registered student organizations during their meeting Wednesday. 

Two RSOs that were approved focused on women. 

An RSO called “Becoming” was approved after much talk and debate among senators. 

Becoming is meant to be a support group for women at Eastern who may not feel comfortable speaking with a counselor but need some sort of assistance with their day to day lives. 

Jayleya Peebles, the president of Becoming and a sophomore biology major, and Sabrina Turner, the vice president of Becoming and a senior human services program administration major presented the RSO. 

Peebles said she came up with the idea for the RSO after facing her own personal struggles. 

“Last semester I went through a really rough time and throughout the summer it weighed on me more that I’m not the only girl that the goes through the thing that I’ve gone through and that everyone needs help,” Peebles said. 

“I wasn’t alone, but I felt like I was alone, so this is basically to get the girls on campus a place to speak and where they can feel like somebody notices what they’re going through.” 

Peebles said there is the intention to focus on students having peer mentors to discuss their issues with and receive support from other women their age. 

Some senators voiced concerns about the RSO because of a lack of guaranteed professional mental health training but Peebles and Turner assured senators they are not trying to take the place of mental health professionals but rather show support to other women going through difficult times in life. 

The RSO was approved with 13 senators voting yes, two senators voting no and four senators abstaining from the vote. 

Another RSO the Senate approved was “Women Exploring Business and Technology.” 

Destiny Blanchard, a sophomore management major, presented the RSO to the Senate with the support of the RSO advisor, professor of management Melody Wollan. 

Blanchard said the RSO was meant to empower women interested in business and technology fields. 

“Business and technology fields are male dominated and there is a difference between being a woman in that (field),” Blanchard said. “What I wanted from this club is to create a community for women to learn to be business professionals and technology professionals without feeling like there is some type of intimidation from or pressure because they are surrounded by male colleagues. 

Blanchard discussed that she is interested in creating a mentoring relationship between students in the RSO and high school students, as well as potentially have graduate students mentoring undergraduate students. 

The RSO was approved with 16 senators voting yes, no senators voting against it and three senators choosing to abstain from the vote. 

Several senators expressed concerns about not seeing the RSO’s constitutions before the meeting. 

Student Senator Keegan Noll, a sophomore political science major, said he hopes that it does not become habit that the senate does not have the option to view RSO’s constitutions before voting. 

“I’d like to express some dissatisfaction with the process of approving the RSO, I believe that it is our job as senators to be educated fully when we approve RSOs and so not having the constitution does not need to happen,” Noll said. 

Samira Abdoulaye-Pedila, Student Senate vice president of student affairs, and Director of Student Life Ceci Brinker informed the senators that the constitutions were not available due to minor formatting changes needing to be made. 

Another RSO, “EIU 5th Edition” was approved unanimously. 

The RSO will be for students interested in the game “Dungeons and Dragons.” 

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or cebrock@eiu.edu