Student Senate made up for its marathon meeting on Feb. 7 as it kept Monday night’s Valentine’s Day meeting short and sweet. The meeting, which also covered some items from the Feb. 7 meeting, lasted less that one hour and included votes on four organizations’ constitutions and one bill.

While a number of items were brought to the table, one bill, which called for all student body presidential candidates to have prior Senate experience, was dropped. If passed, the bill would have required all presidential candidates to have served on Student Senate for a minimum of eight meetings.

“Some of the authors were thinking that we didn’t like exactly what was written in that bill,” Vice President Meredith Marx said.

There still needs to be something done to change the qualifications, but that wording didn’t do the job correctly, she said.

In a carry-over from the Feb. 7 meeting, the constitutions of five new campus organizations were introduced and voted on. Senate approved the constitutions of four groups, including the Latter Day Saints Student Association, the Karate Club, the Equestrian Club and Vision – a group that will be a mutual meeting ground for religious organizations. A fifth group, Ministry UWEC, will have its constitution reviewed next Monday.

The Senate also discussed and voted on a bill to change the qualifications for student representatives for the University General Education Committee, which asked for sophomores to be included for consideration for the position. The author of the bill, Academic Affairs Director Kate Demerse, said by doing this, the committee would be more likely to find a qualified candidate who would stay in the position for a longer time. The bill passed by a majority voice vote.

Senate also welcomed a number of new faces at the end of the meeting, as it inducted 11 new senators.

Organizations Director Catherine Hanson reported that landlords who participated in House Day noted a lower turnout than in previous years.

“Just what we are doing here shows that we really do care about the students … and sometimes it’s easy to slip into apathy when we do plan events and people don’t come to them,” she said. “I just want to encourage all of us to keep persevering.”

President Chad Wade announced a change to the ratio of on-campus senator positions to off-campus, effective in the next election. In the next session there will be 11 rather than 10 on-campus senator positions and 19 rather than 20 off-campus senator positions, he said.