The Union Annual Report is the joint committee between the Student Senate and Executive Board that reports on the fiscal year and creates a budget for the next year. However, according to the Rensselaer Union’s bylaws, the UAR is unconstitutional. According to the Union. Constitution, the Grand Marshal is automatically a member of every Senate committee and cannot be a member of any E-Board committees. Thus, any joint committee between the Senate and E-Board would violate the Constitution, as the Grand Marshal would technically be presiding over an E-Board function.
E-Board recently revised its bylaws to make the UAR an E-Board committee that allowed senators to join. The strong majority of objections were inquiries about the clause that allowed participation in the UAR to fulfill senators’ subcommittee requirements. The Senate subcommittee requirement can be met by a standing Senate committee, the UAR, or any committee designated by the Rules and Administration Committee. Objections were raised about the exclusion of ad hoc committees, or committees that are temporary and not specified in the bylaws, from the requirement. After a discussion, senators removed “standing” from the clause to open up the possibilities of alternate committees.
When the motion was put to a vote it failed to pass, although it received a vote of 11-00-01. With only 12 total votes, the motion failed to reach the required two-thirds quorum. Yet, the Senate passed a separate motion to approve E-Board’s change to their bylaws, leaving the UAR in limbo with their functions differing between E-Board and Senate bylaws. This did not require the same quorum requirement as ammending Senate's bylaws. The motion to make the UAR a solely E-Board committee was tabled until a later date.
On a different note, the Senate confirmed a handful of Class of 2030 to E-Board positions. Firstly, Alon Karlin, who recently started serving as the Vice Chair of the E-Board’s Executive Communications Committee, was confirmed as a Class of 2030 Representative. In addition, Everitt Li ’30 and John Kosowicz ’30 were confirmed as Club and Organization Representatives on the E-Board. In addition, the Web Technologies Group updated the student government software to link preferred names with birth names, an issue that caused confusion during the last election cycle.
This Senate meeting took place on Monday, September 14, 2026. The Senate meets every Monday at 7 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.
