Unofficial election results are in for the 2023-2024 Student Government executive board.
Three of the four positions ran unopposed with four other candidates dropping out of the running, according to former student body president Lucy Ade.
The proposed executive board positions will be confirmed after a 48-hour period, to be announced Friday evening.
The unofficial results projected:
- Nidhi Patel, a senior finance major, won student body president uncontested with 325 votes,
- August Biernbaum, a senior political science major, won uncontested student executive vice president with 325 votes,
- Brianna Hull-Dennis, a senior political science major, and Nicholas Macaluso, senior management major, ran for student vice president of student affairs and Hull-Dennis won 251-92.
- Carlos Rodriguez, a sophomore English major, won student vice president for academic affairs, uncontested with 321 votes.
The Senate inducted 11 new senators raising the total amount to 16. The quorum remains at 11 since last semester’s change.
Those senators are:
- Emilee Boyd
- Jacob Hamm
- Donald Holliday
- Lanell Lewis
- Crystal Spearman
- Pratyu Tata
- Angela Torres
- Regann Bowles
- Ty Rea
- Tameria Johnson-Moorhead
- Jazmin Diaz
Last semester, the Senate only met quorum three times. It hit its first official meeting in early April then sustained quorum up until the end of the year for two more meetings.
During the official meetings, the Senate approved a bylaw changing the quorum and the amount of students one senator represents.
Originally, 300 fully enrolled students counted for one seat, but after the change each seat represented 800 students with the minimum amount to meet quorum being 11.
When the Senate does not reach a quorum, it is unable to conduct official business like the approval of any new student clubs, pushing through legislature, the allocation of funds or the appointment of members to committees.
Speaker of the Senate Karolina Guzek said the Senate plans to keep the quorum low to ensure the group will continue to meet quorum even if some senators do not return like in years past.
“As of right now, I’m going to keep leave [the quorum] at 11 as a safeguard for future speakers in case they encounter the same problem,” Guzek said.
Guzek also wants to keep the cap at most around 20 senators. Active student senators receive a stipend of $50 a month, $250 a semester, while completing office hours, attending Senate meetings and participating at sponsored events.
During the meeting, the group approved a new RSO, last meeting’s minutes, the current agenda and appointed senators to committees.
The new RSO is the KAT Walk, a modeling agency founded at the University of Illinois of Urbana-Champaign that now has groups at Illinois State University and Eastern.
Students are able to join the club and participate in the behind the scenes, production, marketing, modeling, wardrobe and makeup, photography, videography, and sound system design. The group aims to have 15 executive positions and already has around 60 people interested with the group.
Models will be working with the fashion merchandise and design major section of the art department and will work toward their goals of exploring the underrated college realm of modeling, allowing students to feel empowered, promoting inclusion and educating its members on the topics culture, according to the presentation shown at the meeting.
The Senate unanimously approved the group.
Committee reports were also assigned, but have some openings until they are filled by future senators. Those include:
- Academic Affairs, unfilled, Taylor Comer as the graduate assistant,
- Alumni Relations, Tata and Bowles, no GA yet,
- Business Affairs, Spearman and Johnson-Moorhead, no GA yet,
- Diversity Affairs, Holliday and Torres, Attainea Toulon as the GA,
- External Relations, unfilled, Attainea Toulon as the GA,
- Internal Affairs, Morris and Veatch, Alex Tserenova as the GA,
- Student Affairs, Boyd, Lewis and Diaz, Taylor Comer as the GA,
- University Enhancement, Hamm and Rea, Alex Tserenova as the GA.
The Senate will meet next Wednesday on the third floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union in the Arcola Tuscola Room at 7 p.m.
Election results story to come Friday.
Rob Le Cates can be reached at 581-2812 or at deneic@gmail.com
