Eastern’s Student Government met Wednesday to discuss their plans and goals for the semester.

The meeting started with an adviser report from Ceci Brinker, the director of student life, welcoming everyone to Student Government.

“I’m looking forward to working with you all,” Brinker said. “We are looking forward to working with you guys on representing the interest of the student body.”

After Brinker’s welcome, graduate assistant Justin Richards explained his role in Eastern’s Student Government.

“I’ll be advising the internal affairs and university enhancement committees as well as the Speaker of the Student Senate,” Richards said.

Following this, the senators moved onto executive reports from student senators.

The first order of business was a report from Interim-Speaker of the Senate Payton Ade, a sophomore majoring in political science and history.

They began a discussion about events that they did earlier this semester.

Student Government got students involved at the beginning of the year with events like First Night and Break the Ice(cream) and advertised Student Government at Pantherpalooza.

“I believe the Lead EIU was a success, but if we did it again, we have ways we to do them better,” Ade said.

Ade said that having music and better advertising could have made some of the events hosted more enjoyable, so now they know what to do in the future.

Student Government President Jacqueline Williams, a senior majoring in kinesiology, has plans for new events on campus, one of them being a mental health targeted program.

This program would allow students to choose what they would like to see implemented.

“We are doing a list of things [that students can vote on] to see exactly what students would want to see,” Williams said. “[We] want to try and implement this in the upcoming month.”

Another program Williams is wanting to launch is one targeted toward freshmen, allowing their voices to be heard.

“We have been hearing that a lot of freshmen want their input and want some say in things they see on campus,” Williams said.

Williams, along with the senate, wants to bring back the school spirit that was lost because of COVID-19.

“COVID-19 has put a damper on a lot of things,” Williams said. “We’re trying to bring back the moral and the spirit that once used to be here.”

To bring this excitement back, Williams wants to hold an event in the Quad before it gets too cold.

Like Williams, Ade wants to bring more events and excitement to the campus by working with other organizations like Greek Life, RHA, BSU and LASO to figure out what students want and how they can represent them to the best of their ability.

“I hope to bring more events in by working with different groups on campus, awareness events, informal events, just more events for students to do anything,” Ade said.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Parbin Karki, a sophomore majoring in mathematics, said that he spoke to David Glassman and is encouraging students to get vaccinated and wear masks.

Karki said that the vaccination rate is low on campus and is afraid students haven’t submitted their status yet.

The Vice President of Student Affairs, Terrence Trimuel, a senior majoring in accounting, said that he wants to see more student activities.

Trimuel said that there is a Field Day event planned for some time in October that would take place in the Quad.

Rob Le Cates can be reached at 581-2812 or at rllecates@eiu.edu