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Shaylee Giles, speaker of the senate, stands behind the podium for a photo. Speaker Giles was elected in the senate meeting that night for the role of speaker.
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Student organization representatives speak on their request. Each student organization is entitled to $5,000 in reimbursable funds each academic year.
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Chris Herrara, campus safety director, speaks on his work around campus. Director Herrera works to ensure safety on campus and at events that occur on campus.
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Sean Bird, dean of University Libraries and Center for Student Success, presents to the Senate. The discussion covered library hours, resources the library offers and other issues.
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Nick Lloyd, senator, discusses his legislation to allow the budget director to directly pay for chartwells invoices. The legislation passed unanimously, enabling student organizations to pay for food at their events more easily than before.
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Taylor Reddington, campus and community affairs director, speaks on the role of the speaker of the senate position. Director Reddington served as speaker last year.
The Student Senate met again the past week to approve funding requests, hear from a few campus stakeholders and provide the Budget Director with new powers to assist student organization funding requests. A new speaker of the senate was also selected after former Speaker Alex Timm resigned from the senate.
Several funding requests were considered by the senate, all of which were approved. A grant to allow a student to attend the Latin Americanists conference, a request for an organization to attend the Hack Midwest Hackathon and a food request for a Kinesiology Club meeting were some of the requests approved.
The senate held three public forums, with the first being for Chris Herrera, University safety director. He discussed campus moves, safety and security on campus. The conversation covered the iAlert system, parking safety and blue safety light information.
The second public forum, for Sean Bird, dean of University Libraries and Center for Student Success, focused on issues around navigability in Plass, hours of operation in the library and signage. Finally, MK Hunt, Assistant Director Student Accommodation Services and Heather Popejoy, Director Student Accessibility Services, informed the Senate of the work their office does for students and how students can access those resources.
After the public forums, a change to the funding policy was proposed and passed to allow the Budget Director to directly pay for Chartwells invoices for student organizations. Under the new policy, student organizations (after being approved for funding) may send their Chartwells invoices to the Budget Director for direct payment, skipping the reimbursement process.
“I went through the process myself and helped other organizations. It’s very complicated, unnecessarily bureaucratic, and I was like, ‘let’s just cut it out.’ Make it easier for the senators. Make it easier for all the students and student organizations,” said Nick Lloyd, senator.
Finally, the Senate voted to elect a new speaker of the Senate after Timm resigned from the body. The speaker of the senate is a potent position in student government, having the authority to approve late additions to the agenda, chairing both the Committee of the Whole and the Internal Affairs Committee and being the de facto head of the legislative branch. Traditionally the role has been used sparingly and only when needed, despite its potential.
The senate elected then-Senator Shaylee Giles to this position. In an interview after the meeting.
“I would like to voice more Senator concerns. That’s what I did when I went to community college and I really did value what I did there. I’m very grateful for the position I’ve been given,” Giles said.
Edited by Anushma Dahal and Bidhya Sapkota
