Justin Richards was sworn in as Student Vice President for Academic Affairs with 14 in favor, two abstaining and no opposition during the first Student Government meeting of the semester.

Richards originally ran for Student Body President at the beginning of the semester and lost the election in the first unofficial results to his opponent, the now Student Body President Noor Ul Haash Khamisani.

He contested the first unofficial results and Student Election Commissioner Seth Yeakel decided to deduct Khamisani’s total votes by 25% due to violations of the campaign guidelines.

Khamisani went from 195 votes to 178 votes and Richards was named the winner of the newly unofficial results.

Khamisani appealed the decision and due to the contesting process not following Student Government bylaws Vice President for Student Affairs Anne Flaherty gave them the option to do a coin toss, have another election or one concede the race to the other and take on the role of Student Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Richards chose to concede and Khamisani nominated him at the Wednesday meeting.

Khamisani said she highly recommended Richards for the position of Student VPAA and believed he would fulfill the job duties well.

She added she believes he was one of the best candidates for the position of Student Body President.

The meeting also experienced interruptions.

A person using the name “Noah (convidado)” played the song “FDT,” which stands for f*** Donald Trump, among other songs as they continued to join after being removed from the meeting.

Executive Vice President Michael Perri, who is also acting as Interim Student Speaker, had to turn on settings to allow permission to join the meeting and for participants to ask before being unmuted by him.

The senate appointed newly appointed senators during this meeting:

· Destinee Patterson, sophomore English education major

· Prabin Karki, sophomore majoring in mathematics

· Subodh Khanal, sophomore mathematics and economics major

· Morgan Rigdon, junior majoring in political science

· Rachel Ashley, freshman majoring in political science

Newly elected senators also joined their first meeting:

· Constance Young, junior political science major

· Payton Ade, freshman double majoring in math Education and history education

· Zach Bray – freshman health administration major

Returning senators included:

· Elizabeth Stephens, graduate student studying political science

· Keegan Noll, junior political science major

· Marcus Powell, senior political science major

· Seth Yeakel, senior majoring in mathematics and accounting

· Zoey White, junior political science

New senator orientation will be split between this week’s meeting and the Oct. 27 meeting.

Orientation during the meeting Wednesday covered senate expectations along with Robert’s Rules, Parliamentary procedures, and the senate goals.

The goals of the senate will be more accountability to the senate and the Eastern student body with more quality programs and events that will be in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines.

The meeting will be publicly accessible through the Student Government website on a link on their main page and in the menu. It will also be posted to Student Government social media.

Theo Edwards can be reached at 581-2812 or heedwards@eiu.edu.