The student external affairs committee will be presenting a bylaw change at the Student Senate meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Arcola-Tuscola room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

According to the bylaw’s rationale, the changes are required to make sure the committee chair is aware of the several responsibilities they have.

“The reason for the majority of the changes is because the committee does not need to be comprised of non-voting members as we do not vote on much in our committee, rather plan different events that include the Charleston and Eastern community,” according to the rationale.

The other changes are to clear up confusion in regards to the Charleston Town Hall meetings and continuing communication with the Charleston High School Students, according to the rationale.

In the original bylaw, the committee is supposed to be composed of a minimum of two non-student senate members, faculty members appointed by the Faculty Senate and Charleston City Council members.

There should also be one member from the Charleston Chamber of Commerce and one faculty member chosen by the chair through an application process, according to the original bylaw.

The proposed changes will eliminate these positions including those of the non-voting ex officio members, such as the mayor of Charleston and instead calls for a minimum of two Student Senate members to be on the committee.

The bylaw change also calls for an addition of a mandatory collaboration with the Charleston High School students on one project throughout the semester.

With the changes, senators will be able to serve a term of one academic semester as opposed to a full year on the committee and establish communication with members of the Charleston City Council by attending the bi-weekly Charleston Town Hall meetings.

Katie St. John, the current chair for the committee, authored the changes and submitted them along with Luke Young, a committee member and senator.

“All those nonvoting and voting members don’t really apply to our committee’s focus,” St. John said. “Therefore the bylaws needed to be changed.”

St. John said the original bylaw was outdated and did not represent how the committee truly functioned.

“Like any organization, as time goes on things change, and I wanted to make sure whoever took my spot next was familiar with what the committee is primarily focused on so they can continue to do that,” St. John said.

Senators will discuss the bylaw change at tomorrow’s meeting and vote on it at next week’s meeting.

The Student Senate will also approve the Cricket Club at Eastern Illinois University and Alpha Psi Lambda as Registered Student Organizations.

Alpha Psi Lambda was established at Ohio State University in 1984 and is the nation’s first and largest co-ed Latino fraternity.

The fraternity has 25 chapters and three colonies with over 2,500 members.

Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]