Student Senate met for their weekly meeting Thursday, Feb. 10 at 3:45 p.m. in Hoover 212.

The meeting began with a special order, for the swearing in of a representative for the Class of 2025, Cristian Posada.

Administrators were asked to give all reports ahead of time via email and they will be distributed with the minutes the following week, however during this time if any administrators had any additional comments they could say so now.

Dean of Students & Executive Director for College Diversity, Equity and Belonging Nichole Gonzalez began by addressing that big pieces of legislation are being proposed during the meeting, but that’s all that they are, pieces of legislation.

Gonzalez also reminded all Senators about the important and valuable role they play, in that each one deserves to be there because everyone was elected in the same way.

Director of Housing and Residence Life Jenn Azevedo reported that the Student Directed Learning Communities (SDLC) will not be returning for the 2022-23 academic year. This comes due to short staffing issues. The SDLC houses will be used as Independent Learning Communities (ILU) for the next academic year.

During student comments and announcements, Executive Vice President Christina Schnee motioned to move the legislation that is on the agenda from executive session to new business, so that minutes can be taken for those not present. This motion was seconded and passed.

Moving into Executive Cabinet reports, Executive Treasurer Kyle Cappucci reported that the finance committee met and approved a request from Circle K Club. Cappucci also reported that the Formal Attire Closet is still in the works.

Elections Chairperson Cece Sadek reported that scholarships are open until March 11, and then winners will be voted on during the March 17 meeting.

Moving into new business, the majority of time was taken up discussing amendments being proposed by the legislation committee.

The first amendment proposed would eliminate the dress code from the Constitution. This was debated on, and then voted on, in which the vote passed.

The second amendment proposed would have Administrative reports sent out with the weekly agenda, in order for only new information to be announced by the Administrator at the meeting and for questions to be asked. The legislation committee explained the thought process behindthis was to allow for more efficient meetings. The amendment was debated on, and then voted on, in which the vote passed.

The last amendment proposed consisted of two parts, with the first part being reducing the number of class representatives. So rather than each class consisting of 12 senators, four officers and eight representatives, it would consist of eight senators, four officers and four representatives.

This amendment would also push the Traditions Chair, Business Communications Chair and Advocacy and Service Chair up into the Executive Cabinet.

The legislation committee explained how they have looked into other schools, similar in size to Elizabethtown and found them to have significantly smaller Student Senate sizes than  ours. The committee also believes that having a smaller number of Senators would lead to more efficiency in what could be accomplished.

Class of 2022 Vice President Erin Lewis stated that Gettysburg College, which has a student body size similar to that of Elizabethtown, has 123 members  of Student Senate. Etown Student Senate is currently composed of 60 Senators.

A question was raised regarding if the legislation committee had talked to those in the positions of Traditions Chair, Business Communications Chair and Advocacy and Service Chair, about their thoughts and perspective on having those positions sit on the Executive Cabinet, in which the legislation committee had not spoken to any of the Senators holding those positions.

It was then motioned to split the amendment in half, starting with discussion and voting on the restructuring of the Executive Cabinet and then move into the proposed amendment that would reduce the number of representatives.

The meeting then hit the two hour mark, in which a motion was made to extend the meeting for an additional 30 minutes, the vote then passed.

Debate took place on the first part of the amendment, and eventually a motion was made to take a vote on the amendment. It was then voted on, and the vote did not pass.

A motion was then made to extend the meeting for an additional 45 minutes, in which the vote did not pass. The second half of the amendment will then be tabled until the following meeting.

Student Senate meets weekly on Thursday at 3:45 p.m. in Hoover 212. Meetings are open to all the campus community.