The University of Rhode Island student senate swore in four new senators, approved nominations for a constitution review committee and approved four bills in its meeting on Wednesday.
Senate President Argha Goswami joined elected Sens. Melanie Capraro, Clayton Roach, Isabella Neighbors and Tyler Dickson for an oath which motioned their induction as official members of the senate.
Seven members of the senate were nominated for the Constitutional Review Committee including Sen. Cameron Hudson, Chair Meilin Reyes, Speaker Lauren Peckham, Sen. Kairy Elizabeth Gonzalez, Chair Jacob Milner and Sen. Madison Hinrichs.
“We want to make sure this is as collaborative as possible,” Lucas DeWitt, student involvement coordinator and senate advisor, said.
To build collaboration, Melissa Boyd Colvin, interim director for student involvement and student leadership, has been working with the student senate to update their constitution, according to Dewitt.
“We’ve had some casual updates over the course of the years, but we’re really looking to revamp everything,” Peckham said. “The university senate and especially the Memorial Union in general, are going through a lot of transitional periods.”
The senate passed three bills concerning URI student organizations, including bills acknowledging URI Women in Sports and Women in Data Science as senate-recognized organizations.
The senate also passed a bill calling for a $2,000 allocation to send the URI Powerlifting Club to the United States of America Powerlifting Collegiate Powerlifting Nationals.
The pending release of a podcast highlighting the senate was also discussed.
Student senate is also crafting a podcast with a goal to strengthen connections between student senate members and help the URI community better understand “who student senate is,” according to senate advisor Lucas DeWitt.
“I think [the podcast] is a great way to be able to promote everything that [student senate] has going on and the work being done by our senators in their committees,” Dewitt said.
The next student senate meeting will take place on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Memorial Union Room 300.