Senate Corner

Student Senate Update: bylaws, election rules, and playoff tickets

At the Student Senate meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 23, the Student Senate discussed the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs motion, the Change to Senate Bylaws Governing Documents motion, and the Amendments to Election Rules motion. The Student Senate also discussed and passed the budgets for diffential tuition, organized activity, Student Media Committee, and the Student Senate’s budget with an increase of $1.15 per student to the Student Senate segregated fee.

The Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoffs motion was introduced by Senate Vice President James VandenBergh and was to allocate $800 from the Senate funding pool to buy 200 tickets for the four WIAC playoff games that will be played at UW-River Falls. An amendment was introduced to the motion to change the amount of money allocated from $800 to $1600 to pay for 400 tickets for students, which is 100 tickets per game. This amendment was quickly passed, and with that change the main motion also passed. It has not been decided yet how these tickets will be distributed to students attending the games, it will probably be in the hands of the athletic department about how students can receive these free tickets.

The Change to Senate Bylaws Governing Documents was introduced by VandenBergh and was to have the on-campus senator position be elected by the Residence Hall Association. This was in attempt to involve RHA in with Senate. This was quickly voted on and passed.

The Amendments to Election Rules motion was again introduced by VandenBergh. This motion is to change the number of senators on the Election Committee from two to one and to change the number of at-large senators on the committee as well from two to one. This motion also would allow a justice from Student Judiciary to be the chairman of the committee. These changes would allow the Student Judiciary to have more of an influence and to ensure a separation of powers. This motion was also passed.

All information in this update comes from the Feb. 23 Student Senate meeting, and select documents from the OrgSync Student Senate page. It’s very important for all students to stay informed on what is going on with Senate. They meet at 7 p.m. every Tuesday in the Willow River Room of the University Center, and the meeting agenda can be found 24 hours prior on the Senate page. To see the details of what was discussed last Tuesday, go on the Senate page, and read through this week’s minutes document.