During the final meeting of the 69th Session of the Student Senate Wednesday night, fair representation of the student body in the Senate was the highlighted subject of discussion.
The three principal matters of business were votes on “The Election Regulations Update Act,” “The Caucus Division Changes Act,” and “The Caucus Appropriation Act,” all of which passed unanimously. Additionally, open access awards, in which professors provided free textbooks to students through online content, were presented to Middle Eastern studies instructional assistant professor Sena Karasipahi, aerospace engineering professor Helen Reed, and department of anthropology instructional assistant professor Catharina Laporte.
“The Caucus Division Changes Act,” presented by Hood, will be enacted with the Spring 2018 election with the 71st Session of the Student Senate. As the off campus caucus currently occupies the largest number of seats in Student Senate, this act promotes an academically even distribution of seats throughout campus pertaining to the individual colleges.
Furthermore, “The Caucus Appropriation Act” includes an amendment to change the number of specific college representatives from 39 to 50 and add two more seats for senators of each class year. Though there was no debate against the measure, off campus senator and agribusiness junior Julia Krog proposed to table the bill indefinitely, however the bill proceeded to pass with a unanimous vote.
Student Body President Hannah Wimberly and Speaker of the Senate Joseph Hood shared their last executive reports with the 69th Session.
Hood said he is grateful for those who positively impacted him during his time as Speaker of the Senate, and  gave advice to the upcoming session.
“First of all, don’t take yourself too seriously,” Hood said. “We make a difference here, we really do, but there are times where it’s not that big of a deal. The second thing is to keep the spirit … This is one of the few places on the earth where everyone in this room has an equal voice.”  
College of Education Senator Lauren Powers asked Hood if he had one word he hopes the 69th Session of the Student Senate is remembered for, and he responded with “Fearless.”
“There were five different months where we were dealing with some kind of controversy in the Student Senate, whether that be the Spring 2017 elections, whether that be impeachment, whether that be confirmation of individuals who have bravely talked about their experience,” Hood said. “And they also sent a clear amount of messages when things were not representative of who we are, they said this is not who we are as Student Senate. And that’s something I’m very proud of.”
2017-18 Speaker of the Senate Ja’Cory Clark welcomed the 70th Session of the Student Senate and positions were ceremonially passed down from the 69th Session to the 70th. Agricultural leadership and development sophomore and Rules and Regulations chair Ben Johnson was selected as the new Subcommittee Chair.
The new members of the finance committee were confirmed after a period of consideration and voting, and 2017-18 Chief Justice and computer science junior Dhananjay Khanna officially took office after his confirmation.
Seven members of Student Body President Bobby Brook’s executive cabinet were confirmed during the meeting of the 70th Session.
Economics freshman Chipper Adams will serve as Vice President of Communications, chemical engineering freshman Paige Rigsby as Election Commissioner, electrical engineering junior Dakota Plesa as Vice President of Student Services, agricultural leadership and development junior Anne-Marie Prochaska as Diversity Commissioner, business honors management junior Rachel Keathley as Operations Executive Vice President, geophysics sophomore Adilah Amalia as Vice President of Programming, and biomedical engineering senior Luke Oaks as Vice President of Academic Affairs.