During the last student senate meeting of the semester, the senate approved 11 bills, including fee and budget boards.  

These bills were presented at the last meeting, on April 12, and the meeting had discussions about these bills.   

The Senate bill 22-23-15 was unanimously passed at 14-0. This bill approves the student senate budget of about $66,218 for fiscal year 2024.   

22-23-16 was also unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill was for approving the budget for the university board budget of $264,882 for fiscal year 2024.  

22-23-03 was unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill was for increasing the tuition rates for the 2023-2024 for all incoming Eastern students. Students will pay $330.10 per credit taken if they are undergraduates or $335.85 per credit taken if they are a graduate student. 

22-23-04 was unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill will increase the housing and dining fees.  

22-23-05 was unanimously approved by a vote of 14-0. This bill was decreasing and is for the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union operation fees. 

22-23-06 was unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill was increasing and going towards the student recreation center. 

22-23-07 was approved by a vote 13-0-1. This bill was increasing the Lantz and O’Brien fee. This is to make upgrades to Lantz and the athletic facilities for students. This is recommended to go up $0.90. Speaker Guzek feels like the area gets a fee every year and sees minimal improvement.  

22-23-08 was unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill was increasing the housing and dining increase. 

22-23-09 was unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill was increasing the Grant-In-Aid fee. This is to help lower costs for students who may need it in the form of scholarships.  

22-23-10 was unanimously approved by a vote 14-0. This bill was increasing the campus improvement fee, which helps upkeep campus grounds.  

All of these fees between bills 22-23-03 and 22-23-10 are equivalent to about $24,473.32 for incoming undergraduate students for the 2023-2024 school year.  

All of these bills got approved by the senate. The next step for these bills is to move to the board of trustees. The board of trustees will vote on and discuss these budgets.  

These votes are all recommendations for the board of trustees to take into consideration. Nothing has been deemed official.  

22-23-11 was unanimously approved by a vote 12-0-2. This bill shows support for United States president Biden’s student debt relief plan.  

The student action team went to Springfield, Ill to advocate for Eastern students. The team got to see different aspects of the capital and how the capital functions.  

Senate Speaker Karolina Guzek and student body president Lucy Ade gave speeches at the last student senate meeting of the semester.  

Speaker Guzek spoke about her time thus far. Describing the uphill battle that was finding senators to meet quorum 

President Ade spoke about the year, with gaining a new president, starting the year without two vice presidents. Ade applauded the Executive Vice President Connor Mellott and both previous and present speaker Jasmine Yusef and Karolina Guzek respectively.   

Katja Benz can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].