After a brief explanation of procedures of a senate meeting, the first Student Government Association meeting of the year started off with a bill to confirm and seat 24 new senators.

After each senator was confirmed, the meeting moved to special business. Kenneth Parker of the Saint Louis University College in Prison Program gave a presentation on the new SLU campus located at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Mo. Parker said that the goal of the program was to mirror the educational experience on the Frost Campus at the Prison. After presenting some U.S. incarceration statistics and promoting the benefits of providing inmates with a college education, Parker invited the senate to get involved with the College in Prison Program.

“I want you to be aware of these fellow students of yours,” Parker said. “And I welcome you to come and see for yourself.”

Next, Lisa Israel of the Student Success Center gave a presentation regarding the results of the Academic Advising and Mentoring satisfaction survey that was conducted last spring.

“There is a sizable portion of students not having a good experience in the mentoring and advising program,” Israel said.

Assessments from the survey concluded that there needs to be more clarity of roles and expectations within the system, a stronger sense of community building, better connections with faculty members and a greater follow up on referrals offered to students, Israel said.

Israel also announced the implementation of the new SLU Appointments software. The program, found in each student’s MySLU account under the “Tools” tab, streamlines the appointment making process, making it easier to set up and manage appointments between students and advisors.

Senate thenpresented a bill that would amend the constitution to enable the majority of the executive board to appoint students they deemed the most capable to the executive staff. As a constitutional amendment, the bill was tabled for a week and will be addressed at the next meeting.

Senate also debated a bill addressing the responsibilities of committee representatives. An amendment was made to strike the internal affairs committee from the list due to concerns regarding the impeachment and appointment powers of senators . Some senators argued that giving committee representatives these responsibilities would give Senate greater perspectives from the general SLU community and would be important to have in the name of fairness. The argument that it is a matter of experience over fairness won, however, and the amendment passed before the bill was tabled for a week.