DeKALB | After losing his SA senate bid in the recent fall elections, Robert Batey asked senators if they still felt he represented them Sunday.

The 38th session of the SA Senate began with Robert Batey, speaker of the SA Senate, swearing in this year’s senators. As he looked at all of their faces, Batey commented on how nearly two-thirds of them were new. He also laid out his plans for the rest of the year. He said this year’s senate will be more active and committee attendance will be more enforced this semester.

At the end of the meeting, he asked senators to remain after the meeting for an informal vote. Since he was not elected in the fall senate elections, he said he wanted the senate to informally vote in support of him. He said the SA stands for democracy and he would respectfully step down if the senate did not approve of him.

After the meeting, Batey left the room and the senate unanimously voted in favor of him.

“It was a personal thing for myself,” Batey said. “I wanted the senate to feel I’m their legitimate speaker.”

Plans for a GPS monitoring system for the Huskie Bus Line were announced by Brent Keller, director of mass transit. The project aims to put GPS locators on all of the buses so students can see where they are at all times from monitors in the Holmes Student Center, DuSable Hall and even the SA or transit Web sites. Keller said cost figures were outdated, but that he was negotiating with Tri-Star Communications at 1280 E. State St. in Sycamore.

Keller also scheduled a meeting to discuss what he felt was a “spectacular failure” of the No. 5 bus route. He said because of the route’s length, the bus runs into a lot of off-campus traffic and ends up being very inefficient.

An under-used way to promote events was discussed by Michael Johns, SA vice president. He said the Easy System, a way to publicize events on campus through the NIU calender and mass e-mails could be used by more people. Johns said promoting the Easy System and planning for the Spring organizational expo were his main priorities for the year.

Christopher Norman is the Student Association Reporter for the Northern Star.