Student trustee Chime Asonye began the Illinois Student Senate meeting by challenging senators to fight for student rights and continue the work of recently deceased associate dean of students, Cathy Acevedo.

“We have lost a fighter for students on this campus,” said Asonye, senior in LAS. “We are charged to pick up the slack.”

Justin Randall, former student body president, added that there will be a memorial for Acevedo sometime in the next two weeks in either Champaign or Urbana.

Wednesday night marked the final meeting of the past term’s senate and the induction of the newly elected senators.

Before the new senators were sworn in, former senators attending their final meeting thanked the senate for a successful term and offered some words of wisdom to the newly installed senators.

They told the new senators to focus on what the student body needs and to always keep the students in mind when making decisions.

The new senators, who were voted into power by the student body on Feb. 28, were then officially sworn in Wednesday night by Randall.

“I’ve gotten a good feeling of the campus,” said Angelica Vargas, junior in LAS and new senator.

“I wanted to be more involved in terms of the administration.”

Randall also passed his throne by swearing in Jaclyn O’Day, junior in LAS, as the new student body president.

“I think this was the most productive year of the student senate,” Randall said.

“We are the most productive (student) government in the Big Ten.”

Some of the major issues the new senate will face include problems with campus climate and the rising price of tuition, Randall said.

Next year will be the first year that tuition will be above $20,000.