Student Senate officially has committee chairs.

At Wednesday’s Student Senate meeting the committee chairs were unanimously approved.

The committee chair will run committee meeting and provide Student Senate with weekly updates.

Jim Johnson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, and Jeffrey Lynch, associate dean the College of Arts and Humanities, gave an update on the construction of the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Johnson gave a brief synopsis of how the planning incorporated students and faculty.

Lynch showed pictures of how Doudna looked before construction began as well as pictures of the building’s concept.

Forty architects including Micheal Graves and I. M. Pei submitted concepts for Doudna, but the university chose Antoine Predock, he said.

Johnson concluded the presentation with a final update on construction.

He expects the building to open in phases, with the building completely operational for the fall 2008 semester.

During Student Body President Sean Anderson’s executive report, he updated Student Senate on improving campus safety.

Anderson met with state representative Chapin Rose (R-Charleston) to talk about campus safety at Eastern and across the state.

Rose will submit a resolution to the Illinois House requiring the Illinois Board of Higher Education to research statistics on campus safety, Anderson said.

Illinois does not currently provide funds for campus safety.

Student Senate Speaker Jeff Lange has begun to delegate some tasks to committee chairs.

Lange also plans on rewriting the Election Commission, writing a mission statement and writing a vision statement.

In other news, Student Senate members Kenney Kozik and Jillian Ruddy have resigned.

There are currently five open seats in Student Senate: three on-campus seats, an off-campus seat and an at-large seat is open.

Applications are currently available in the Student Activities Office in the second floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Friday is the deadline to apply for an open seat.

Student Senate committee chairs:

Adam Martinelli- Student Relations

Tiffany Turner- Shuttle Bus Advisory

Quentin Frazier- Diversity Affairs

Jeff Melanson- Tuition and Fee Review

Rich Higginbotham- Housing

Leah Pietraszewski- Internal Affairs

Kent Ohms- External Relations

Alison Kostelich- University Development and Recycling

Katherine Wlodarski- Academic Affairs co-chair

Issac Sandidge- Academic Affairs co-chair