The Student Association met Sunday evening to welcome a new senator, approve a student organization and pass the year’s first amendment bylaw.

At the meeting, 35 out of 39 were counted in attendance with only one executive officer, Vice President Lauren Mock in attendance.

The SA Senate had two senate chair positions open, one of which was filled Sunday by new senator-at-large Michael Hankla, a sophomore finance major from the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.

“From talking to [President Brent Keller] I became more interested in [the Senate] and after talking to him and other previous senators I felt that this is something new, something I’ve never done before, something cool I could do,” Hankla said.

Speaker of the Senate Matthew Venaas approved of Hankla as a good choice for the opening, as did the rest of the Senate.

“He seems very well-qualified and he obviously cares a lot about this organization,” Venaas said. “President Keller brought him on to serve on the board of elections in the fall and he did very well with that and he seems to show a lot of interest in SA.”

There are five candidates currently being considered for the remaining senate position. Each of them must attend at least one SA meeting and so far three of them have.

On the meeting’s agenda, two student organizations were to be approved, however one organization, Exposed to Greatness, was not represented at the meeting for the second week in a row. According to SA policy, this group now cannot be officially approved until the next semester.

The other organization, the American Red Cross Club, met with unanimous approval and is an organization based on fundraising and sending aid to causes local and abroad.

SA had also passed its first bylaw amendment of the year in a simple act of changing the name of the University Services Committee to the University Services Oversight Committee.

Venaas said this committee is truly an oversight committee and it should be reflected in the name.

The Director of Governmental Affairs, Erik Calmeyer, also gave an update to the condition of the new DeKalb Police Station that was proposed to be built on Lincoln Highway saying that deliberations are at a standstill but hopefully it will be resolved by December.

“It’s the city police that immediately takes care of the safety of those in Greek Row and everyone else off campus so with the new police station that really affects the student body as far as response time goes,” Calmeyer said.