Student senate updates letter writing campaign
Jarrod Scherle, executive vice president of the student government, said, during the student Senate meeting on Wednesday, that he has collected 685 letters within a week in support of the new science building.
The collected letters are part of his letter writing campaign where he hopes to get 2,000 letters by the April lobby day.
The letter’s voice student’s opinions on performance based funding and encourage state senators to vote in favor of a new science building for Eastern.
“We’re currently eighth in line with the Illinois Board of High Education with the science building money,” Scherle said. “Our goal is to get that moved up or get the board to allocate more money for the list.”
Scherle’s original goal was to collect 1000 letters to give to Springfield senators in April. He launched the campaign at last week’s meeting.
Scherle congratulated the senate members and asked them to continue to collect letters and said he hopes to gather a packet for each senator complete with a cover letter explaining the process.
“We’re basically asking them to help us out on this one,” Scherle said.
Besides Scherle’s update, the student senate met to give committee and executive reports.
Zach Samples, the student speaker of the senate, explained the importance of having a weekly meeting despite a lack of business.
“Our meetings are more than just a time to do business,” Samples said. “It is also a time for all of us to collaborate and get on the same page.”
Samples announced that strategic planning discussions would take place at the group’s retreat and talked about the open forum that will take place on March 28.
“We wanted the strategic plan to be a team building activity and more hand on and explain how it works better,” Samples said. “This way the process will go quicker when it comes to the senate floor.”
Samples also informed the senate members about the open forum meeting which runs like a regular meeting but takes place in the University Ballroom.
“Its just like a regular meeting, but is in the University Ballroom and we invite all the departments on campus,” Samples said. “We typically have 50-100 people in attendance, publicize it more, and have free food.”
The senate members discussed the success of their “Blue Out” event and hope to do something similar during the softball and baseball seasons.
The student senate meets every Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Amy Wywialowski can be reached 581-2812 or [email protected].
