Though they did not meet in the Student Union’s new and unfinished Senate chambers as planned, the Student Government Senate called its first session of the Spring Semester to order Wednesday night.The meeting began when eight new senators raised their right hands and swore to uphold the SG constitution’s bylaws.”I’ve been here for a while now, and I wanted to see what could be done for the students in the senate,” said graduate school senator Santhosh Verma. “Over the years I’ve seen student fee bills go up, and I am interested in keeping them low.”The swearing in was followed by the resignation of former College of Engineering senator Robert Ingram. After being elected to the senate last semester, Ingram was appointed to fill the vacant seat as College of Engineering president. Because no student may hold two positions in SG, Ingram’s resignation was accepted by the legislative body.Speaker Pro Tempore Drew Prestridge asked the senate members to help spread the word about a new program to involve students in SG spending.The Temporary Student Initiative Committee will oversee the collection of student ideas on how best to spend $5,000 of student fees in the coming year. Ideas will be collected, sorted and presented to the senate by the committee and voted on by students on the spring ballot.Chief of Staff Michael West stressed the importance of increasing student involvement in the upcoming SG election. While he said there were plenty of students looking to participate in the election, there is still a need for students “who only want to get involved a little bit” by sitting on the vacant elections board.
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Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]