Student body president, Nidhi Patel, a senior finance major, appointed a Student Government Constitution Revision Committee during Wednesday’s meeting in the Arcola/Tuscola room in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
The constitution is overdue for revision by a year and a half, as the senate bylaws state it is to be revised every five years in the fall semester. The last revision took place in 2018.
The committee will be composed of three senators, three executive officers and one student unaffiliated with the student government.
Patel is worried about the difficulty of finding someone unaffiliated with student government to serve on this committee.
Her timeline to appoint members to this group is tight, as the current constitution allows 15 days from the senate’s approval of the committee.
The current constitution refers to a judicial branch, though it has been inactive for more than four years. Patel intends for the constitution revision committee to address the inactivity, though it is undecided whether or not she intends to reinstate the judicial committee.
Senator Oliver Ehmann on the University Enhancement Committee shared intentions to renovate the botanical garden and shared a resolution endorsing recycling in Charleston. Both will be voted on in next week’s meeting.
The University Enhancement Committee and External Relations Committee have found the lack of recycling on campus and the surrounding Charleston area inadequate, and the student body has similar concerns.
Ehmann shared that Charleston’s Mayor Brandon Combs will sit in on next week’ meeting to make progress toward a resolution.
Patel has also been working on an artificial intelligence task force among university faculty.
The task force plans to review other universities’ policies regarding the use of AI to develop an ordinance so AI use can be dealt with uniformly.
Patel appointed a new member of the senate to the Bond Revenue Committee, which is composed of three student government members, three student members of the Resident Hall Association and Mark Hudson.
The committee discusses housing and dining costs as well as produces a budget proposal plan for the upcoming academic year.
Carlos Ramirez, vice president of academic affairs and a sophomore psychology major, said the distinguished faculty awards date will happen April 4 in the University Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Veronica Gipson can be reached at vmgipson@eiu.edu or 581-2812.
