NEWS IN BRIEF

Student government vote to amend constitution fails

One vote and several abstains prevented Student Government from adopting a new constitution that has been in the works for months.

At the first meeting of the spring semester, the student government attempted to pass the constitutional revision, which has been in development for the past several months and has gone through several rounds of revisions. It has been the subject of debates at the last few student government meetings.

The motion to approve the constitutional revision needed 12 ayes, ¾ of the current senator population, to pass. However, it only received 11 affirmative votes. One senator, Barret Larkin, who was appointed as the Organization Relations Officer at the meeting and had previously served as the senator for the School of Business, voted nay. The other four senator’s votes included one voluntary abstain, and three votes that were not included automatically as they were not present.

The main changes coming to the constitution is the addition of new senators who are meant to represent groups on campus that have been historically underrepresented, such as non-traditional students.

Concerns shared by senators around the new revisions are the lack of transparency with the student body and that changing the constitution makes the government look weak. The responses by other senators include that they are elected by the student body to represent the student body and should be trusted to make decisions, and that changing the constitution is not a sign of weakness, but instead a sign that the government is functioning as it should. President Ramhat Salau said that they are going to keep trying to pass the constitutional revision.

01.17.23

A wallet was found in the MUC.

01.18.23

A wallet and a debit card were found in the MUC.

A traffic accident was reported on the Alton campus on Annex Street near Leverett Street.

A credit card was reported stolen from Parking Lot B.

01.19.23

A wallet was found in the MUC. A parking hangtag was stolen from a vehicle in Parking Lot 5E.

An iPad was found in Founders Hall. A debit card was found in Dunham Hall.

An offensive sticker was found on a door in the 400 wing of the Cougar Lake Apartments. BIRT was notified.

01.21.23

A debit card was found in Parking Lot 5E.

01.22.23

A student in Cougar Village reported that she had found notes on her door from someone that claimed they were watching her. The writer of the notes has yet to be identified.

01.23.23

A set of keys were found in Peck Hall.

01.24.23

Two wallets were found in the MUC. Before the snow began, a driver lost control of their vehicle and ran into the sign outside Prairie Hall.