The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Student Association appointed new Senators and revised numerous bylaws at its meeting on Sun, Mar. 9. The meeting was held in the Union West Ballroom and call to order occurred at 6:37 p.m.

Before the agenda was approved, Speaker Tyler Kristopeit motioned to add revisions to UWM’s Ch. 17 and 18 non-academic misconduct policy. His motion was approved, and the Senate went on to approve the Feb. 17 minutes.

President Robert Grover then took the podium for general comments. In addition to pushing for more safety initiatives like UWM’s text message alert system and C.O.A.S.T. initiative, Grover urged the SA to help “institutionalize” early adoption on campus.

Early adoption involves campus faculty members placing textbook orders earlier, allowing the University Bookstore to pay more for book buy-backs and helping them to reduce future prices by having more time to find used books.

After other brief comments and reports, Independent Elections Commissioner Daniel Bahr addressed the Senate and spoke about SA elections ballot options. Bahr explained that the next SA elections can be conducted via either scantron ballots or traditional paper ballots.

The use of paper ballots would involve paying student assistants to count ballots by hand, while scantron expenses would include printing ballots and using the UWM test center to count the votes. The paper ballot option would be approximately $500 cheaper than using scantrons.

“The reality is that this is an incredibly important election”, said Grover, advocating his support for paper ballots. He added that the SA should save money and keep election ballots in the hands of students.

A roll call vote for the SA recommendation of the use of the scantron ballots to the IEC failed unanimously, and the Senate officially recommended paper ballots in the upcoming SA election.

Special orders on the agenda included the appointment of three At-Large Senators, as well as filling one vacant Shared Governance Committee seat and one Senate Appropriations Committee seat.

The only At-Large candidates present were appointed unanimously as a package and proceeded to take an oath of office. Senator Casey Lura won the Shared Governance Committee seat, while the only candidate for the SAC seat was appointed to the position.

New Business included revisions of both SAC and IEC bylaw revisions, an American Student Government Association (ASGA), resolution, official SA support for increased political pressure for more higher education grants, and UWM non-academic misconduct revisions.

Both bylaw revisions passed in a roll call vote. In addition, the ASGA resolution passed, which will see the SA joining the student government organization with a one-year membership. Finally, SA recommendation for revisions of UWM Ch. 17 and 18 policies was passed.

“Students have a right to be heard by a jury of their peers,” said Kristopeit, commenting on the faults of the current UWM non-academic misconduct policy.

After brief announcements, the meeting was adjourned at 7:37 p.m., lasting exactly one hour.

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