Student Senate inducts new senators
January 29, 2020
Student Senate started its Wednesday meeting by swearing in four new senators and making nominations for speaker of the senate.
Michael Perri, a political science senior, waits outside of the Student Senate meeting on Wednesday night. Perri had to wait outside during the speaker elections because of senate bylaws, which state an individual cannot be in the room while the candidate they spoke for is taking questions during the meeting.
The four new senators that were sworn in were: Benjamin Drake, Paul Abraham, Dylan Johnston and Keith Kerrigan.
Abraham and Johnston said they were excited about being a part of the senate and had goals on what they wanted to bring to the table.
“It feels good; I think the biggest thing for me is that I get to give something back to Eastern,” Abraham said.
His goals for being part of the senate now is to make sure that the older students who are enrolled at Eastern feel more included because he is a nontraditional student.
“When I came to Eastern, I was 27. Now I’m 29. I’m just trying to keep the inclusivity in there for the older people,” Abraham said.
Johnston said it felt good to be a part of the senate because he was focusing only on himself, but now it is bigger than him.
He said his goals are to bring fresh ideas to the senate and to utilize former Eastern students to encourage current students.
“I had an idea for an event to have the alumni come down and motivate the students by speaking, so hopefully I can get that in action,” Johnston said.
At the meeting, nominations were held for the new speaker of the senate; Senator Seth Yeakel gave some reasons on why he believes he should be the next speaker.
He said he wants to be a role model for the other senators, and he wants to promote other senators’ success with his mentorship and leadership.
He said cutting back from work and taking on more responsibilities with the senate might also be beneficial.
“I work seven hours a week, and I’ll cut it down to four,” Yeakel said.
He is very confident that he can handle the responsibilities of being the speaker.
Michael Perri, last semester’s speaker of the senate, vouched for Yeakel.
“Without a doubt, I do not have a single doubt in my body that he will be the speaker that student government needs,” Perri said.
Perri said that he was not the best at keeping a long-term focus; most of his work was planned a week before, but Yeakel is the kind of person to plan a month in advance.
The senate will vote on Yeakel becoming the next speaker during its meeting Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Arcola/Tuscola room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Jelan Buchanan can be reached at 581-2812 or jjbuchanan@eiu.edu.
