The Student Senate passed a bill and had a discussion on the recent Fund EIU rally and a new car sharing company that is coming to campus at their Wednesday night meeting.

Bill 15-16-09, previously published as bill 15-16-05 as a result of an error in the agenda, was unanimously approved by the members of Student Senate.

The approved bill ensures that the additional $2,205 in the reserve account will be released to the Apportionment Board for remaining semester events including “EIU Ted Talks,” “The Holocaust” and “Students Fight Back/Spring Break.”

Student Body President Shirmeen Ahmad said all of the different events that are being planned have a purpose.

“They are highly attended and important for our campus to offer,” Ahmad said.

Because the bill was emergency legislation, it had to be voted on immediately after the period of questioning and discussion and passed with 15 yes’s and one abstention.

Many senators said  they were very pleased and impressed with the turnout of the Fund EIU Rally.

Catie Witt, the student body vice president, said she thought the rally was great but was worried students would not catch on at first.

“Just seeing everyone there was sort of overwhelming,” Witt said. “Like it made me want to cry because I’m an emotional person.”

Maralea Negron, the student speaker of the senate said she thought students showed strength in numbers and proved that some are educated as to what is going on.

Negron said it is the senator’s job to properly inform students who might have the wrong idea of the budget impasse.

“If students aren’t aware of what exactly is going on it stirs up a lot of mixed emotions and they become overly afraid,” Negron said.

Student Senator Gabriella Ramirez said the rally did a really good job of showing that Eastern really is a “communiversity” because community members, students, staff, and faculty became one.

In addition, the student senate was introduced to Zipcar, a car sharing company that already has two parking spots ready in Stevenson’s parking lot.

Zipcar representative Dan Schmieder said it is basically like a car rental, but students can reserve the car by the hour, day and week.

It is a $15 annual fee for students to create an account and after starting an account students will be mailed a Zipcard.

“With the Zipcard you can go to our website and reserve a car for any errand you would need to run,” said Schmieder. “You can really go anywhere in the U.S that you want to go with Zipcar.”

Included in a reservation is 180 miles per day, insurance and gas but after a student exceeds the 180 miles, it is 45 cents per extra mile, Schmieder said.

Fran Lonergan, another Zipcar representative, said Zipcar’s minimum age to reserve a car is 18.

“So it is a great alternative to those students under 21 who cannot actually rent a car,” Lonergan said.

Zipcar is implemented in over 500 college campuses nationwide and the representatives said they hope to actually start up at Eastern tomorrow.

The two cars the company is bringing to campus are a Ford Focus and a Honda Civic.

Thomas Mahrenholz can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]