Wider representation voted down, Senate positions stay same

A second attempt at altering the number and distribution of college senators failed Wednesday night, preventing more colleges from having representation among campus.

The Revised Senate Reform Act Amendment, which was billed as a compromise to the controversial Senate Reform Act, was voted down. The revision of the amendment would have redistributed five of the current 15 senators-at-large to other colleges as opposed to eliminating them altogether. The proposed sophomore senator was removed from the legislation altogether.

The compromise was rejected because members did not want to lower the number of senators-at-large.

“I’m just still not comfortable with eliminating senators-at-large,” said Kara Osborne, a senator-at-large.

The College of Public Health, which would have received a senator under the amendment, will still not be represented.

“Sometimes we have a tendency to focus on our own perspective and not the students we’re representing,” said Krystal Frieson, a graduate senator.

Some supporters of the act, such as Matthew Marano, the College of Design senator, believe the Senate should be more open to change and the broader campus community.

“The student body put us here to be more open to change,” Marano said. “We need to be willing to change — starting with ourselves.”

Also at the meeting, a senator, Morgan Culver of the College of Social Work, was impeached and removed from the Senate for violation of the Senate Accountability Act. Culver is the first senator to be removed because of the new attendance policy.