DeKALB — The Student Government Association Senate unanimously approved its first senator for the semester at Sunday’s meeting, leaving 14 seats still vacant. 

Junior nutrition major Peter Dworzanski is the Senate’s newest member in district three. Dworzanski said he ran for the senator position to bring the “non-traditional student aspect” to SGA. 

Dworzanski said he graduated high school and went straight to work to save money for college so his family wouldn’t have to worry about the costs.

“For now, my focus is on SGA,” Dworzanski said. “My goal here is to represent students fairly and with understanding. I want to be able to talk to them, especially those who have similar

life experiences like myself of doing some work before going to school, and those who are older and coming back. It’s a different kind of perspective that you sometimes need to listen to.” 

Dworzanski said as a senator, he hopes to be a voice outside the community as well. He said students and community members should come together more often in instances such as a community trash pick up to better get to know one another. 

Speaker of the Senate Brad Beyer said filling the rest of the Senate seats is a top priority for the semester. 

“This still leaves 14 openings,” Beyer said. “I said at the very first meeting of the year that recruitments and really getting senators to fill the vacancies is a top priority.” 

New student organization approved

The Senate also unanimously approved of its first new student organization of the year called Operation Smile.

Emma Meyers, vice president of Operation Smile, said their mission is to inspire students to be an active voice for communities around the world who lack access to effective surgery for those born with a cleft lip or cleft palate. 

“We focus on service, so we’re empowering students to understand the importance of being an active member of our organization and being able to help people locally and globally,” Meyers said. “We also provide these opportunities for students in order to volunteer and take personal ownership of this cause for cleft care.” 

Meyers said the organization will also focus on fundraising efforts to support those in need of surgery because nine out of 10 people in low and middle-class neighborhoods can’t afford it.

Other Business

The only cabinet member to give a report at Sunday’s meeting was Director of Advertising Jimmy Holmes. Holmes said he’s been working on flyers to post on buses and on-campus to advertise voting for the 2020 election and finding ways to advertise the benefits of SGA to student organizations. 

“We’re working on creating something that essentially you can send out to student organizations that show how to get funding and the benefits from the Student Government Association,” Holmes said.

Five committee reports were also given at Sunday’s meeting. Chairpeople from environmental affairs, university services oversight, rules and procedures, public affairs and campus and Greek life held their first committee meetings last week to discuss goals and assign leadership positions. 

Chairperson Cristian Hernandez said the campus and Greek life committee are hoping to bring back Greek Week virtually this year to show the community what Greek life has to offer. 

“At our meeting, we established our committee goals, which are really just working with organizations to uplift other organizations around campus,” Hernandez said.