The announcement of the election results and the presentation of a State of the Senate address by Speaker of the Senate Joe Robbins, the Student Senate resolved old issues while tabling new ones surrounding state education grants, a bill allocating funds to the Student Recreation Center and a bill to strengthen senate diversity requirements.

Katie Cox, student member of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee said a new university president has been hired and will be announced April 29 at the Board of Trustees meeting.

A bylaw change was passed that forces all on-campus senate members, including those in Greek and University Court, to attend hall council meetings to ensure on-campus senators are fulfilling their duty to represent on-campus residents.

A bill allocating $382.50 from the senate budget to print 9,000 new shuttle bus schedules featuring easier-to-read charts was passed along with a bill to keep the shuttle bus route the same next year.

A new bill sparked a debate about the tuition hike. The bill proposes that the senate back a 3.5 percent tuition increase proposed by the administration.

Daryl Jones, student vice president of public affairs, said the tuition increase is rational and that Eastern is lucky it didn’t face the same increase as other Illinois universities, where talk of raising tuition involves much higher numbers. The University of Illinois raised tuition by 10 percent at its campuses in Urbana, Chicago and Springfield.

Shirley Stewart, acting vice president for student affairs, said the extra money will fund education and curriculum rather than buildings and maintenance, which was a concern of some senate members.

A bylaw change was tabled asking that all senators who do not fulfill diversity requirements be penalized one senate meeting as opposed to one committee meeting as mandated by a previous bylaw change. Missing three committee meetings equals missing one senate meeting.

Since new diversity requirements were enacted, only six of 29 senators have fulfilled diversity requirements.

Senate member Tim Edwards, who helped draft the bylaw change, said the senate has to start taking diversity seriously if they expect the rest of the student body and university to.