Union Constitution amended to include MFSC senator

With Grand Marshal Week in a month, the Student Senate was on a deadline to approve the Union Constitution. One point of interest about the in progress constitution was that it included a new Greek senator, namely, a Multicultural Fraternity and Sorority Council senator. Independent Senator Ben Viner ’24 noted that adding this Greek senator would make a total of three Greek senators, whereas there are only two independent senators. Thus, Viner proposed an amendment to add another independent senator. With a similar line of reasoning, Graduate Senator Alexander Lutsevich amended the amendment to add another graduate senator. With a new MFSC senator, independent senator, and graduate senator, the ratio of each group remains roughly the same. These changes were all passed, meaning Grand Marshall Cait Bennett ’23G will send the revised constitution to President Martin Schimdt ’81 for review.

Director of the Union Charlie Potts spoke to the Senate regarding the Michigan State University shooting. He mentioned that he met with Vice President for Student Life Peter Konwerski and Dean of Student Life Travis Apgar, and that action regarding safety “is a work in progress…my pledge to them has been that I’m pledged to [the Senate.]” Potts wants to make sure that student leadership is involved in the discussion regarding Union safety.

The Senate decided to postpone talk on the RPI RA Union considering Konwerski did not attend the meeting. The Senate is waiting for Konwerski to be present to discuss the union further.

The Senate also appointed Giuseppe Molfino ’23 as MFSC liaison. Vice Grand Marshal Alexander Patterson ’23, noting how new organizations have a tendency to fizzle after a few years, asked how the MFSC will survive, to which Molfino answered that the MFSC does several things to stay alive, including taking over Commons for a day.

This Senate meeting was held on February 15. The next Senate meeting is Wednesday, February 22 at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.