At this week’s Students’ Association meeting, senators showed support for the addition of carpet in traditional residence halls on campus and awarded the Senator of the Year award.
Resolution 17-19-R, which supports the installation of carpet in the traditional residence halls, was approved 16-11. SA was informed about Residential Life’s stance on this topic, represented by Rebecca Peterson, the director of Housing and Residential Life.
Residential Life supported the resolution, but cited that there will be other considerations when installing carpet, such as other projects to improve the halls along with maintenance and repair.
During the meeting, SA nominated candidates for senator of the year, with the votes being tallied by SA’s advisers.
The recipient of the award was announced and Sen. Viraj Patel was awarded the honor by the body.
In unfinished business, SA addressed two possible amendments regarding SA elections and petitions. The amendments were 17-08-A and 17-09-A, both of which failed.
Amendment 17-08-A would have required the amount of signatures to double from 50 to 100 for at-large candidates, along with signatures coming from each college represented on campus, excluding the graduate school.
Amendment 17-09-A would have required a petition for the presidential and vice presidential tickets in uncontested elections if they did not receive 550 votes in the general election.
Sen. Patel said the failed amendments were aimed to encourage SA candidates to run in the general elections as opposed to at-large positions, however, other members of the body felt this might prevent some candidates from running for unfilled positions.
During new business, SA introduced five different resolutions to be acted on, as the next meeting will be the last one for this term. The resolutions will address bike lanes on campus, studying abroad, polystyrene on campus, bike share programs and the task force for student diversity.
The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 9 in the Lewis and Clark room of The Student Union. All new senators will be sworn in next week, as well as the new executive board, marking the shift to the next Senate body.
This story has been updated from its original version for a correction. The original story said that next week’s meeting on April 9 would be the last meeting of the semester. The story is now corrected to accurately reflect that it will be the final meeting for 2017’s Senate body as the new body will be sworn in, but it will not be the last meeting of the semester.
