The student senate met quorum for the first time this semester, with all fifteen senators present.  

Allie Painter, a junior middle level education major, Ameenah Morris, a sophomore philosophy major and Dadochi Ekowa, a junior political science major got appointed to the senate, being the three final senators to meet quorum.  

Since this was the first official meeting of the semester, there was a wide variety of things to get to on the agenda.   

The concent agenda during the meeting had quite a few things to get through. A consent agenda is a single motion that says that things that are not controversial can be voted on by a group with a yes or no vote.  

Things on the consent agenda included the appointment of Jasmine Yusef to Faculty Senate, the appointment of Justin Richards to the Distinguished Faculty Award Nomination committee, the appointment of Karolina Guzek to the Distinguished Faculty Award Nomination committee, the appointment of Lucy Ade to Bond Revenue Committee, the appointment of August Birenbaum to Bond Revenue Committee, as well as approval of a variety of registered student organizations, RSO’s.  

The RSOs approved were weightlifting at Eastern, the underground line dancing club, Film Club, Club 13 (EIU Version) a Taylor Swift club, Uplifting Athletes and Club Hockey.  

Senate Resolution 22-23-01 was passed by 15-0-0. The resolution denounces gun violence and said that the student government recognizes the events that took place at Michigan State University on March 13 and the events that took place at the Covenant School of Nashville, Tenn. on March 27.   

Senate Bylaw Change 22-23-01 was also passed 15-0-0. The bylaw change said that there should be one senate seat for every 800 fully enrolled Eastern students. There will be 11 total senators needed to meet quorum after this point.  

 Prior to this, there was one seat per every 300 fully enrolled Eastern students, meaning that there must be 18 senators representing the student body at large with a cap of 30 senators.  

 However, with this new bylaw, the senate will be more likely to meet quorum. If quorum is not met, any pending RSO will be approved by Eastern’s student life office.  

The reason for this bylaw change was to reflect the present enrollment at Eastern as well as decline in interest in student government.  

 Since it was the first official meeting of the semester, Executive Order 22-23-01 ceased to exist because the executive order stated that quorum must be met in order to get budgets approved at the meeting.  

This means that any budget needs to be sent through the government. These budgets are to create events are for Eastern students to attend, such as tabling events or recruitment bowling events.  

There was an emergency senate bill passed with a vote of 14-0-1, with senator Nora Okolie abstaining as she wrote the bill.

The bill, written by senator Nora Okolie of the Alumni Relations committee, said that the committee wanted to collaborate with Alumni Services to collaborate with them to help celebrate the graduating class of 2023. The budget will be $2,521 and includes items such as EIU tote bags from the bookstore, congratulatory post card from the bookstore, an EIU diploma frame, an EIU portfolio and grad ink pen, an EIU alumni ceramic Mug and premium champagne flutes with the EIU logo. 

 The results of the parking utilization survey were presented at the meeting.

Senator Jasmine Yusef of the university enhancement committee said that there is a lack of centralized student parking around campus. Almost 300 respondents claimed that they were either very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with the parking facilities.  Other concerns were the staff to student parking ratio and the cost of the parking permits.  

Recommendations included changes to the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union meters, reducing the cost of permits and converting some rows in critical areas around campus into student and staff parking.  

However, each of these recommendations came with stipulations such as raises in the number of citations given out by the University Police Department.  

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