The Students’ Association is back in the South Dakota Student Federation.

But with some precautions.

Senators voted to rejoin the federation after a debate at its Oct. 17 meeting, but with a probationary period attached to the ordinance.

SA rejoined the Student Federation after a two-week leave. Senators voted in an earlier meeting to leave the federation because they didn’t extend a deadline of an earlier ordinance calling for the break by Oct. 4 if certain changes weren’t made to the federation.

“We just want to protect ourselves so we don’t end up in this situation again,” said State and Local Chair Taylin Albrecht during the debate.

The day after the Senate voted to leave, the Student Federation met and voted to make the desired changes.

These changes included a budget structure for a flat-rate member fee for all South Dakota institutions represented by the Student Federation and a constitutional change to have student governments only lobby on legislative issues receiving consensus from the Student Federation.

The ordinance didn’t pass without opposition from some senators.

Sen. Robert McLean, who is also executive director of the Student Federation, didn’t like that the ordinance was only discussed among executive members of SA and not senators.

“I think a probationary period is just outrageous at this point,” McLean said about rejoining Student Federation with a probationary period.

The probationary period will last until April 3, 2017. When this date arrives, senators will vote to officially rejoin the Student Federation or not.

SA had its first reading of Resolution 16-03-R: Students’ Association Support of Gender-Neutral Bathrooms in Honors Hall. The resolution will be discussed at next week’s meeting.

The constitution for Turning Point USA at SDSU was approved during the meeting. Turning Point SDSU is a fiscally conservative group based on economics. The group focuses on free markets, limited government and fiscal responsibility.

The next SA meeting will be Monday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in the Lewis and Clark room of The Union Upper Level.