The SGA appointed four new senators and both adopted and suspended several resolutions at Sunday evening’s meeting.

The senators appointed include Vincent Joseph as graduate student senator, Konner Beer as senator for business and management, Dane Vincent as senator for liberal arts and sciences, and Brandon Klages as senator for public affairs and administration.

Joseph previously ran as a candidate for the international student senator position, though was defeated by Wei Jin. In his introduction, Joseph noted his desire to leave the impression that “Vincent can do things.”

“I started with theater,” he said. “Coming from a country where English is not the primary language, I overcame the challenge and acted in [the school’s production of] Macbeth as Lennox.”

Joseph is also the treasure of University Bible Fellowship, the secretary of the Student Organization Funding Association, and currently carries a 4.0 GPA.

Beer fills the spot left by Kalen Smith, who resigned from SGA to focus on his academics and internship. Beer is a first semester senior who hopes to further his involvement on campus. He currently works with the comptroller’s office and hopes to acquire his CPA degree.

Vincent is a returning SGA member. Previously he acted as the senator for transfer students before becoming internal vice president. He returns to UIS seeking a bachelor’s degree in Information System Security.

“I have a passion to help students,” Vincent said. “… During my tenor, I was referred to as bulldozer … I like to shake things up.”

Klager, a second-year legal studies student, currently serves as the CAP sophomore representative to the Capital Scholars Honors Program Steering Committee. He’s been with the public affairs and administration department for a year and half.

All senators were appointed unanimously.

The SGA then went on to address the multiple resolutions put forth on agenda.

Introduced at the last meeting, resolutions 17 and 19 were readdressed.

Resolution 17, which focused on developing specific auditing procedures for SGA fee allocation, was adopted.

Resolution 19, sponsored by Senator-at-Large Yamundow Camara, focused on international students’ concerns with UIS Health Services and insurance policies, was suspended due to the senator’s absence from the meeting.

Resolution 25 addressed the early arrival fees charged to international students during move-in and orientation. During the explanation of this resolution, Dr. Clarice Ford, interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs, addressed the SGA and student body.

“If you have been charged an early arrival fee,” she said, “it is important for you to go to the International Student Services and speak to them … so I can make certain that you’re given your fee back. This will not happen again.”

After watching the students discuss multiple concerns, including the availability of condoms in the residence halls and currently unused space of Mary Jane’s Café in Brookens Library, Ford also took this time to encourage better communication between her office and the SGA.

“Just have a conversation with me, or anyone, so you don’t have to do all of this work, and you can deal with some other important issues,” she said. Ford also requested that she be sent copies of their resolutions, so that she may advocate for them when needed.

Resolution 31, which proposed moving the Career Development Center instead of the Volunteer and Civic Engagement Center into the Student Union Building, faced heavy debate. After about 30 minutes of deliberation between the senators, as well as the audience members, the SGA voted to suspend the resolution pending further examination.

Resolutions 21, 22, 23, 28 amended various sections of the SGA bylaws. All of these were adopted.

All other resolutions, which addressed issues ranging from obtaining a printer for Lincoln Residence Hall to language barrier concerns for international students and counselling, were adopted.

All resolutions are available to the public through the SGA website. All previous SGA meetings are available for viewing from the ITS webcasting page at https://www.uis.edu/informationtechnologyservices/connect/webcasting/webcasting-sga/