Senior biology major Ashleigh Thomlinson joined Student Senate’s executive council as parliamentarian at Wednesday’s meeting. The position was left open when former parliamentarian Raymond Dunaway, accounting sophomore, was promoted to treasurer earlier this year.

Vice President Brooklyn Lampe, senior environmental health major, announced the news early in the meeting, as well as addressing the tasks of the vacancy committee. Lampe informed the body that five students had already applied to join Senate.

“We will be doing interviews with the applicants throughout the next week, and they will come to the committee meeting on Oct. 8, and we will vote then,” said Lampe.

Both the capital improvement and public relation committees’ chairs shared what they addressed last week in their respective meetings.

“We talked about helping with signs for parking, but it turns out that might not have to come out of our Senate budget,” said senior biology major Stephany Aguinaga. “We also talked about adding something else dorm side students can do for entertainment.”

The public relations committee ran into a few difficulties with plans they had initially made for the Homecoming parade.

“We had talked about a float and had some great ideas, but the more I started to contemplate it, the more I thought we got on the ball a little late, and if you can’t do something right, don’t do it all.” said senior biology major Staci Sonntag.

Despite the float falling through, the public relations committee plans to promote the Senate by campaigning for the Homecoming candidates the group nominated.

Later in the meeting, president Jake Messer, junior, psychology, gave a presentation on an incentives program he will present to the President’s Council.

Resembling Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in terms of style, the plan lined out different benefits for serving in different capacities of Senate.

The first of the three levels would be a 10 percent discount to the campus bookstore; all Senators would receive this discout. The second level would provide committee chairs and executive officers with office space on campus. The final level would be exclusively for the executive council, and it would give each executive officer a parking spot or allow them to park in faculty spots.

Messer also plans to push for the offering of bi-weekly paychecks for student workers.

“After talking with a lot of student workers, it seems like this would be beneficial when it comes to budgeting,” said Messer.