The Student Government Association approved six bylaw changes, appointed five new senior senators and discussed options for fall and Thanksgiving break changes at the meeting Oct. 8.

Jim McGill, faculty representative to Student Government, introduced three options for changes to the fall and Thanksgiving breaks. McGill said the options were to either discontinue fall break for a weeklong Thanksgiving break, have two days for a fall break and three days for Thanksgiving, or begin the fall semester two days early to keep the weeklong Thanksgiving break and add a fall break. McGill said the third option was overwhelmingly favored by faculty, but there is still debate on whether or not starting school two days early is logistically possible.

Senior senators were chosen by senators in their respected colleges. Kaetlin Lamberson was appointed senior senator for the Holland College of Arts and Media. Nolan Deen was chosen to be senior senator for the Donald L. Harrison College of Business and Computing. Renee Owens was appointed senior senator for the College of Education, Health and Human Studies. Peyton Ruddy was appointed senior senator for the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Robert Phillippe was chosen to be senior senator for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Five bylaw changes approved will require all senior senators to meet with the chief of staff every two weeks. Another change was approved that gave the chief of staff new responsibilities. They include overseeing the task force lead, updating SGA bulletin boards and being the chairperson of the Dr. R. Ferrell Ervin Excellence in Teaching Award Selection Committee.

Campus Safety Committee chairperson Grace Gryzwa brought up the topic of security cameras on campus. She said Southeast currently has “over 300 working security cameras,” some of which are dated. There are no plans from DPS for adding new cameras, but rather updating the current cameras, Gryzwa said.

SGA vice president Eli Bohnert named Justin Tuschhoff senator of the month. Bohnert paid homage to Tuschhoff for “getting out there and taking charge,” as a first-year senator.