Correction: This story was changed to clarify the fact that the Deputy Speaker is an appointed role.
DeKALB — The Student Government Association said goodbye to deputy speaker Eddie Guerrero and made changes in preparation for the spring 2026 elections at their final senate meeting on Friday.
DEPARTURE OF DEPUTY SPEAKER
Deputy Speaker Eddie Guerrero provided comments for his final meeting of the semester.
“My time at SGA has been one of my best parts of my college experience, right up there with the tennis club,” Guerrero said. “I worked my way up the leadership ladder from senator to chairperson, to parliamentarian and finally to deputy speaker. Throughout that journey, I have been trying my best to support students, senators and organizations any way I could.”
The Deputy Speaker is a position appointed by the Speaker of the Senate. According to an email from Senate Speaker Nathan Gonzalez, no senators have expressed interest in the position and Gonzalez does not have anyone in mind at this time.
ELECTION CHANGES
The SGA rolled out a series of bills meant to increase transparency and reduce the bureaucracy of their spring 2026 elections.
Senate Bill 57013, which passed in a 16-0 vote, requires the SGA Board of Election to notify news publications of election results or post them to the SGA office within 36 hours of the polls closing.
Additionally, members of the board will receive a stipend up to $1,000, voted on by the senate.
The approved senators who will be serving on the Board of Election are Eddie Guerrero, Taoheed Adeoye, Ryan Umare, Noah Joerin and AJ Evon. The Board of Election’s current task is to appoint an Election Commissioner from the board.
Senate Bill 57014 passed unanimously, prohibiting the use of A.I. in all campaign materials for SGA election candidates.
Senate Bill 57015 changes the minimum and maximum number of seats in the senate. The new minimum number of total senate seats is 30, and the maximum is 55.
Previously, the senate used a formula to determine the number of senators representing the interests of each individual college at NIU. The formula took the total student population and multiplied it by 20% per college to determine the number of seats to represent each constituency.
“It completely does away with the old funding formula because, quite frankly, it did not make sense,” Gonzalez said. “The new funding formula that is being proposed specifically has the population per college and divides that by 1,000, and that’s the amount of additional senate seats that can go per college.”
The bill passed in a vote of 16-0.
PRE-STUDENT TEACHING ORIENTATION MODULES ACT
Senator Erin Uhrine, representing the College of Education, presented senate resolution 57022, which would provide students entering clinicals and student teaching placements the opportunity to access orientation sessions through online modules.
“Right now, the College of Education provides an in-person orientation session, which is helpful, but they aren’t accessible to everyone,” she said. “Some students lose their notes, some can’t attend, and many feel anxiety or feel anxious because they don’t fully know what they are going to expect when they walk into their first classroom.”
Uhrine also detailed the contents of the modules.
“These modules would cover topics such as classroom management, assessment professionalism, communication with faculty and cooperating teachers and time management,” she said. “These also could include scenarios, short videos, checklists, reflection prompts and opportunities to earn digital badges. There would be opportunities to receive two digital certifications and a resume workshop to better College of Education skills for these students.”
The resolution passed in a vote of 15-0.
OUTREACH AND PR BILL
Senate Bill 57012, which was discussed at the Nov. 7 SGA meeting, requires senators to only attend an outreach program as part of their mandatory community service.
Previously, senators were required to attend both an outreach program and a public relations event.
The bill passed in an 18-0 vote.
MINIMUM GPA REQUIREMENT
Senate Bill 57016 requires undergraduate members to maintain a GPA of at least 2.5 and 3.0 for graduate students during their time in office. Students are given one semester as a grace period to improve their grade, but will lose their position if they are unable to do so.
The bill passed in a vote of 17-0.
FINANCE COMMUNICATION
Senate Bill 57017 requires student organizations communicating with any member of the SGA finance committee to use the A-ID email address of SGA representatives.
The bill passed in a vote of 17-0.
The next SGA meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 23, in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.
