The Illinois Student Senate will vote on the final items of the academic year on Wednesday at the Illini Union Pine Lounge.
As many as 10 items will be up for votes, as Wednesday’s meeting is the last chance senators have to put a resolution up to a vote until next fall.
David Pileski, student body president, said most of the resolutions are minor in objective and should not be time-consuming.
Pileski said despite the higher than usual number of resolutions up for vote, the committees in charge of reviewing and approving these items have not been burdened with immense workloads.
Jim Maskeri, student senator from LAS, serves as chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. He said the committee he oversees is not under stress with the last resolutions this semester.
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One resolution Maskeri said he hopes goes up for a vote is an item regarding University outreach. The resolution calls for administration to increase marketing and promotion of the University internationally. Maskeri said it is an attempt for the University to not solely base its prestige on national and world rankings.
The resolution has been referred back to the Academic Affairs Committee the past two meetings. Maskeri said he hopes the additional work on the resolution, such as the addition of more citations to the writing, will help it gain enough support to pass.
With finals coming up, he said he hopes the senators survive these last few days and balance their priorities, especially the newly elected senators.
“I am always concerned with new senators and them not getting overwhelmed with the work,” Maskeri said.
The new senators have been very active in student governance, Pileski added. He said their commitment to ISS is a positive sign of a busy and productive year come fall semester.
“It’s really a strong showing from the next group of senators,” Pileski said.
Meanwhile, it seems unlikely the DREAM Act and campus sanctuary resolutions will be up for action on Wednesday. Pileski said he hasn’t heard anything regarding progress on the resolutions, which would benefit undocumented students on campus.
Pileski said he believes author of the resolutions and former student senator Teresa Ramos would like to push back the resolutions for the fall semester. Ramos was unavailable for comment.
