The Illinois Student Senate still needs 700 signatures by tomorrow for its petition to have the proposed student senate constitution on the Fall Referendum.

The senate needs 2,200 signatures, or one-fifth of the population for the constitution to be included. They currently have 1,054 signatures.

“I set a personal goal to go out and collect 300 myself, and I personally wanted to ask each of you to collect 10 today and tomorrow on your own,” said Vice President – Internal Spencer Haydary.

The senate meetings are now on FacebookLive to preserve transparency, said Vice President – External Alex Villanueva.

The Nov. 16 Illinois Student Senate meeting began with a public comment from the Illinois College of Law. Three student attorneys, part of the Elder Financial Justice Clinic, discussed the importance of recognizing financial exploitation of the elderly.

The students encouraged senators to ask their elderly family members who is in charge of their finances and if they have ever felt pressured to enter into a financial contract before. The group primarily represents people over 60 years of ago.

The Board of Trustees met last week, and there is no change in the state budget impasse. An idea called IPAC was drafted, and the board passed it. This initiative will help keep in-state enrollment high.

The legislative measure would require the University to not raise tuition for five years, and only increase prices to adjust for inflation. In return, the state would give the University $662,100,000 in fiscal year 2018.

President Ron Lewis informed the senate that the executive accidentally did not close the applications at the deadline for the annual winter conference, ABTS, where student senators meet to exchange ideas. This led to senators being able to apply past deadline. Some of the students accepted for ABTS were of those that applied past deadline.

Lewis said the executive takes responsibility for this mistake. Lewis will not allow anyone that applied after deadline to attend ABTS.

Senator Samuel LeRoy believed Lewis was out of line in talking about ABTS, as it was on the agenda for resolutions for information. A vote ensued to decide whether Lewis should continue informing the senate of this mistake or not. In a 11-21-4 vote, the senate decided Lewis could continue speaking.

“I know and respect all of the candidates that were selected, but I know what the rules are, and that’s what we’re going off of — not my personal feelings,” Lewis said.

During the consent agenda, which is the portion of the senate meeting where items are approved in one action, the senator for the College of Engineering, Rahul Raju, shared that the college is committed to embracing and recognizing all of its students. They encouraged people to come through with any instances of discrimination.

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