The Student Senate voted 17-0 passing a resolution where they recommend that university administration remove holds on student accounts for underclassmen students.

Senator Lesly Mendoza, one of the bill’s creators, said that this is especially important for first and second year students who may not be able to complete outstanding requirements that the hold requires in order to be taken off.

This recommendation lets the administration understand how students may be impacted by the changes voted on by the senate.

The senate voted on partnering with College Pads, a ‘one stop shop’ for living situations, whether on a college campus or in the surrounding campus area.

The senate voted 16-0-1 on bringing the partnership up to administration.

Senator Natalie Mitlyng thinks that students may be confused by the whole renting or living on campus situation, so having this partnership allows for students not having to check multiple sites for prices before choosing a place to live.

The senate also voted 16-0-1 on a fee transparency resolution. The fee, which every student must pay, helps student athletes receive scholarships.

While fees will not go up for students, this fee will transition from the Grant-in-Aid Fee to the Athletics Fee, meaning that the Athletics Fee will be higher and the Grant-in-Aid Fee will be lower.

The senate also watched two budget presentations, one from the senate and the other from the University Board.

The University Board is an organization run by Eastern students that puts on events for other Eastern students. Some events they put on are homecoming and welcome back weekend events such as quacking in the quad, and the panther bash April 7 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

If approved, the board would see a $52,400 increase between the eight different departments.

The biggest difference in department budgets will be in the traditions department. This department includes the biggest on-campus events: Welcome Back Weekend in August, the Welcome Back Dayz in January and the PantherBash.

The traditions department is a new department included in the board says University Board Chair Haylee Brickley, a senior public relations major.

“Traditions is a new committee that we’re introducing,” Brickley said. “Before it was only Welcome Back Weekend. We had never done Welcome back days, which was our spring Welcome Back Weekend. We have never done that before until this year. And Panther bash is something new that we’ve done in the last couple of years instead of concerts. So what we’re going to do is introduce traditions, so that will keep those traditions alive here on campus. So not only are we going to be able to do Welcome Back Week, but we’ll do the spring Welcome Back Days, and Pantherbash. So it’ll be one coordinator, one student who is in charge with a whole committee putting on these events for the students so we can keep these traditions alive here at EIU. So people can always look forward to them when they come back every year.”

Katja Benz can be reached at 581-2812 or at kkbenz@eiu.edu.