Student Senate met quorum with 17 senators present for Wednesday night’s meeting at 7th St. Underground, providing them with the opportunity to run official business.

Thanks to the appointment of three new senators, Student Senate had 17 of 19 senators present, with the minimum number of senators needed to meet quorum being 15 senators.

The quorum allowed for the approval of the minutes of the previous official meeting on Sept. 22. This was followed by two motions for the amendment of the agenda to remove the appointment of Billie Frazier to the Library Advisory Board, add the appointment of new senators, and the appointment of Chloe McEuen to the Library Advisory Board.

In the new business, the speaker election took place. Senator Jasmine Yusef nominated Senator Katelynn Alexander for Speaker of the Student Senate.

Alexander gave a presentation which introduced who she was, her qualifications and her goals for the Student Senate.

After Alexander was vacated from the meeting room, the Student Senate had a discussion period about Senator Alexander. Senators discussed what they thought of her work ethic, character, and how well she would perform as speaker.

After deliberation, the vote was 17 yes and 1 abstain; therefore, officially electing Katelynn Alexander as Speaker of the Student Senate.

Alexander, a political science major, shared her excitement about her new appointment.

“I am very excited,” Alexander said. “I am also very motivated because I only have the position for a short time since it took so long to have quorum to be able to have the election. So, I’m excited just to get started right away.”

Alexander also described her plans now that she has the position of Speaker of the Student Senate.

“So, I talked about student outreach, and I want to get the rest of the seats filled in Student Government,” Alexander said. “So, an idea actually was brought up that I think would be really great is ‘senate on the go,’ where we have our meetings in a residence hall and it’s open to anyone to come.”

Since Alexander took over as Speaker of the Student Senate, Student Executive Vice President Payton Ade said they are happy to only have one executive position.

“It feels amazing,” Ade said. “I was in a position that I was not elected into that position. I was given that position for the fact I was one of the two execs on the Student Government Association that had been a member of the Student Senate before.”

The consent agenda also saw the appointment of:

• Billie Frazier to the University Naming Committee
• Lashay Powell to the Sexual Assault Task Force
• Tamia Flowers to the Sexual Assault Prevention Team
• Jason Tabit to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Grace West to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Carolyn Karns to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Kayla Crowder to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Sophia Parrillo to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Olivia Triplett to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Teagan Guard to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Faisal Tariq to the Student Dean Advisory Council
• Faith Nuss to the WEIU Advisory Board
• Joseph Gregory to the Council of University Planning and Budgeting
• Avian Roberson to the Textbook Rental Service Advisory Committee
• Billie Frazier to the Committee on Bylaw Revision Adoption
• Payton Ade to the Committee on Bylaw Revision Adoption
• Katelynn Alexander to the Committee on Bylaw Revision Adoption
• Connor Mellott to the Committee on Bylaw Revision Adoption
• Madisen Tellis to the Student Senate
• Lesley Mendoza to the University Grade Appeal Committee
• Chloe McEuen to the Library Advisory Board

In addition to the committee appointments, Kennedy German, Mahalet Mulugeta and Madisen Tellis were also sworn in as senators.

Ethan Schobernd can be reached at 581-2812 or ejschobernd@eiu.edu.