The Student Senate approved the Senate Resolution 21-22-01 by a vote of 19-0 to recognize the five Miss Black EIU contestants, which includes one of their own senators, at Wednesday’s meeting.

The senate resolution recognizes Promise Anderson, Faith Johnson, Kymoni Dixon, Brianna Hull-Dennis, one of the student senators, and Jaedah Franks, and it congratulates Jaedah Franks for being crowned as the 2022 Miss Black EIU.

Ceci Brinker, the senate’s advisor and director of student life, thanked the senate for the resolution and recognizing the contestants and the hard work they put into the pageant.

“I appreciate you guys recognizing the participants and the Miss Black EIU scholarship pageant,” Brinker said.

Justin Richards, the senate’s graduate advisor, also thanked the senators that helped out with the production and behind-the-scenes work with the Miss Black EIU pageant.

The senate unanimously approved the resolution with a 19-0 vote.

The senate heard from Don Holly, a professor of anthropology, who spoke during the audience participation to hear feedback from the senators about the idea of a +/- grading scale system.

What this means is that there would be separate grade points for a B+ compared to a B or B-. Right now at Eastern, all Bs are a 3.00 and As 4.00. 

Under this grading scale change, B+ could be a 3.33, Bs a 3.00 and B- a 2.67 GPA.

Holly’s point of discussion is that there are students suffering from a large grade point drop if they get a B instead of an A.

Currently, Holly doesn’t think the +/- grading scale difference is necessary for As, Ds or Fs, just Bs and Cs because if you’re already failing the class there isn’t much to help your GPA, but if you already reached the mile marker of receiving an A then you earned the 4.00.

Holly presented this idea of a new grading scale to the senate to get feedback on how Eastern students would potentially respond to the change.

The senate showed little reluctance towards the idea after Holly expressed wanting to keep all As a 4.00.

Vice President of Student Affairs Terrence Trimuel shared the results of the senate’s Martin Luther King, Jr. University Union survey sent to students for feedback about the Union.

Almost half of the responders used the Union weekly, 26.7% use the Union monthly, 16.3% use the Union daily and 14.6% never use the Union.

The most common use of the space in the Union is for studying or for lounging and meeting with groups or friends.

The least common use from the Union is for the administration and office spaces.

The results from this survey are being used to calculate the best option for the usage of an empty space on the lower floor by the newly reopened hair salon.

Previously, it was office space and now it is empty.

Various ideas for the space included a more secluded study space, massage chairs, a free-to-use printer, a laminator and other available office supplies for projects like glue, scissors, tape, etc.

A final decision has not been made at this time.

The next Student Senate meeting is the senate’s second Senate-On-the-Go meeting at Stevenson Hall on the first floor above the dining hall at 7 p.m. next Wednesday.

The Senate-On-the-Go meetings is one of the senate’s ideas to be visible and available for students on-campus compared to the usual hidden meeting location in the 7th Street Underground in the Union.

Madelyn Kidd can be reached at 581-2812 or at mekidd@eiu.edu.