Student body president gives State of the University address
Kevin Flasch (standing), a student senator and senior business management major, gives a standing ovation to fellow senator Randy Prince (sitting to the left of Flasch), who said his goodbye to the Student Senate because he is graduating this semester.
December 7, 2017
Student Body President Luke Young talked about how “good times are on the horizon,” for Eastern during his State of the University Address Wednesday night at the last Student Senate meeting of the semester.
Along with Young, Will Outzen, the student Speaker of the Senate, recapped the semester and shared a set of goals for next semester in his State of the Senate address .and will continue being the speaker for next semester.
Focusing primarily on Eastern’s improvement since the budget impasse, Young said though its enrollment is hurting compared to competing institutions there is still hope for the university.
He credited Eastern’s admissions and marketing offices for spending “countless hours” advertising the university and attracting more students.
“The data shows,” Young said in response to potential pessimism regarding Eastern’s future. “We have our inquiry cards,those numbers are way up, we got a much more aggressive marketing campaign (and) we’ve had a lot of feedback from our open houses, which by the way our open house numbers have been way up this year.”
Inquiry cards are submitted by potential students.
Derek Pierce (right), the student executive vice president, reads a bylaw revision to the election guidelines Wednesday night during the Student Senate meeting in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union while Luke Young (left), the student body president, looks on.
Young said the numbers show that the university is projected to do well in 2018, but he specified that it is only a projected number and not solid.
As for the student government’s role on campus and fitting into the “big picture,” Young highlighted three ways that student government can be of service to the community.
He said the senate must continue to support projects and initiatives the university implements continue in aiding student retention by increasing student involvement and school spirit; and continue being ambassadors for the school on and off the clock.
“Our job is to always be up-to-date with what’s going on in the institution and we are going to continue to get Atudent Action Team up and going and lobbying,” Young said.
As for staying involved in university politics, Young said he will inform students with an update on the Workgroup Review Committee but said he is careful on what to say because everything being discussed is preliminary.
Young also commented on the situation surrounding Sigma Chi and its suspension.
“Student government is obviously always going to be there for the students and definitely Sigma Chi was a big part of our student population and they’re going to be very missed,” Young said. “As far as any action that will be taken by us, we have not proclaimed or stated anything that we’re going to be doing.”
Young said as more facts become available and the senate gets a good handle on everything that has happened, student government may or may not address the situation.
In his address to the Senate, Outzen complimented each committee and said in general the Senate has become closer this semester.
“The Senate is far stronger as a result of this change,” he said. “As a result, we have a vast amount of returning senators, from all walks of life on and off campus.”
Outzen also shared similar sentiments for a bright future and so did Young.
Following his speech, Outzen was unanimously approved to be next semester’s speaker of the senate.
Outzen ran unopposed.
The senate also approved two bills.
Danny Estrada (right), a student senator and junior sociology major, explains why he nominated Yesenia Muruato, another senator, for Senator of the Semester during the Student Senate meeting Wednesday night in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. While Alyssa Vergara (left), another senator and sophomore secondary education major looks on, Estrada said he nominated Muruato because of her hard work.
The senate first approved a bill for a new Registered Student Organization and the second bill was a bylaw revision to the previous election guidelines.
Derek Pierce, the student vice president, read the bill aloud and said the reason behind the revision was because the previous bylaw was outdated and “very confusing and ineffective.”
Sam Reiss, one of the bill’s sponsors and student senator, said the reforms are just common sense and will help keep up with the social media age.
“Just make sure (everyone) actually reads it,” said student senator Ethan Osborne in response to approving the bill. “Just saying most of us don’t read (Outzen’s) emails…so (read the bylaw change) in your free time.”
Being the last meeting of the semester, senators also nominated other members for senator of the semester and those who will not be returning for the following semester said their goodbyes.
Student senator Randy Prince was nominated as senator of the semester.
Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].
