The Student Senate meeting started at 6:05 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22 in the Dakota Ballroom in Davies Student Center.
Vice Chancellor Billy Felz started by presenting “Enrollment Overview for Fall 2025,” which outlined information about the current student body at UW-Eau Claire, the new freshman class, demographic information and event successes from Welcome Week.
The 10th day official enrollment record for the next couple years was updated as well with information from the first three weeks of college.
The incoming profile based on the Aug. 28 pull outlined information about the most recent freshman class. Notably, UW-Eau Claire welcomed students from 28 different states this year, which is up from the previous 23 states last year.
Additionally, 12 international students registered from 10 different countries. When it comes to majors, nursing is the top choice at UW-Eau Claire with the most students enrolled in the program.
There were a lot of celebrations to hold for the newest freshman class, as they have the highest average high school GPA in the past several years, which rebounds from the historical low in fall of 2024. They also have a record-breaking amount of 23,871 college credits in total amongst the entire class with 89.3% of the students bringing in this credit.
Engagement also saw tremendous growth with 57 events being held during welcome week. The party in Davies Student Center saw a 22.63% increase in attendance, and the “C-word consent” event saw an 11.48% increase in attendance.
Overall, the events had 8,813 attendants combined, resulting in a 45.23% increase in attendance.
Reports were made by the president, vice president, organizations and committees regarding recent updates and announcements.
Vice President Zach Cardille mentioned there were 20 interviews for the new senate positions and nine were chosen to be sworn in, all of whom took their oath at this meeting.
The Student Senate held a vote for 69-R-2, which is in support of distributing a degree audit informational video.
The placard vote was 27-0-2. The bill was passed. They opened up the floor for speakers.
When asked about the benefits of this informational video, Chanel Berg, director of the University Activities Commission (UAC), said “no explanation is too much,” and it will be helpful for all students to better understand their degree audit.
Siena Emerson, director of the Academic Affairs Commission, pointed out that the video had no captions, but they will be working with the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department to get captions for the video as soon as they can.
After going over the speakers list, the vacancy personnel went up to the podium to get sworn in.
Committee appointments were nominated and voted on.
Announcements were made regarding the upcoming week as well as homecoming information.
First on the agenda, the homecoming Q-and-A will be held from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23 in the Student Involvement Center.
There will be royalty sign-ups open from Sept. 22 to Sept. 28. Organizations can nominate someone through their group to become a royalty member. If they take all the proper steps and win by the majority of votes, they will get “VIP seats” at the football game, according to Berg.
Bingo Extravaganza will be held from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24 in The Cabin at Davies Center. Multicultural Student Services (MSS) is partnering with the UAC to feature two different types of bingo, one of which is Eau Claire themed and the other is Mexican loteria to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month.
Monday, Sept. 29 is the kickoff and corndogs event at Davies Plaza. This will be celebrating the start of homecoming week and is hosted by UAC.
The senate adjourned at 8:18 p.m. and will reconvene next at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29. in the Dakota Ballroom.
Trnka can be reached at [email protected].
