Emily SeigelCampus Editor

The first meeting of Student Senate was held at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Lions’ Den in the Billingsly Student Center. The meeting was informal. Director of Student Activities Darren Full-erton began with a welcome and introduction of Senate advisers and officers. Student Senate Pres-ident Will Lynch made an announcement about the remaining open seats on Senate. There are seats available for freshmen, sophomore and junior representatives. If, by Sept. 23, those seats have not been filled, the vacancies will become open to seniors. Applications for Senate are available in the student activities office. A vote for two seniors who tied for the last seat will also take place during the first formal meeting, held at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 23 in the Billingsly Student Center. The winner will be determined by a vote of the elected senators.Senate also unanimously elected Lynch and Vice President Lindi Todd as their candidates for Homecoming king and queen during the meeting.Sophomore Nate Starmer, who is serving on Senate for the first time, said he is looking forward to the senate improving University policy and procedure.”I think there has to be a good representative for Student Senate,” he said. “I think in the past Student Senate has not been successful.” Secretary Kisa Clark, who has been on the Senate for two years, said this year they have seen more student participation that in the past, especially from the seniors.”[This year’s senate] has taken a much more serious tone,” said Clark.Lynch said Senate is planning to start an ad hoc committee for presidential review on Sept. 23 and the committee will be selected the following week, if not sooner.”It’s important, especially with the action that faculty is taking, that the student’s body is heard, and heard loudly,” said Lynch. “I’d hate for the voice of the students to be ignored if we don’t do something.”Lynch said he believes the Senate has the same impact as Faculty Senate and Staff Senate.”If you have a university and you take away half the faculty, I think they could make it,” he said. “If you have a university and you take away half the students, I don’t think they could make it.”Lynch said he believed the majority of students have been in favor of the job Speck has been doing.”I feel bad for the position that he’s in having to make those rough decisions,” he said. “But those are decisions that have to be made.”Whether a Faculty Senate ad hoc committee takes a vote of confidence or vote of no confidence in Speck, Lynch said he is not going to push it one way or another.”[It’s] just for the purpose of having everybody’s voice heard and get a good idea of how students feel before taking any sort of action,” he said.