DeKALB — The Student Government Association Senate approved a new senator at Sunday’s meeting, leaving 14 open Senate seats left to fill. 

Cole Hensley, first-year industrial engineering major, was sworn in as SGA’s newest senator. Hensley said he wanted to join the Senate to help make the university and DeKalb a safer place to live.

“I believe we should have a discussion with DeKalb, just with getting daily alerts about robberies and everything else, I think it needs to be changed to make everyone safer,” Hensley said. 

In addition to a safe community, Hensley said he wants to unite the City of DeKalb and the university by hosting collaborative events to make the community more enjoyable for everyone.

Dallas Douglass, deputy speaker of the Senate, said Hensley is one of the only senators who lives on campus in New Hall Residence Hall, giving a different perspective to the Senate.

Hensley said living on campus during the fall semester has been rough with the pandemic.

“The only time I get out is when I get food or when I go to the gym in the morning, but I mean I don’t see a lot of people, I don’t meet a lot of people,” Hensley said. “I just feel like you don’t get to really meet anyone, I think that’s a big aspect of the whole college experience.” 

Hensley also said he believes political beliefs are separating the campus right now, citing the previous discussions around SGA Vice President Kyle Jacobson and his role in Turning Point USA.

“I would like to have every senator just be better at avoiding their personal beliefs when voting and just think about the students because I believe that my personal opinion doesn’t matter, it’s [the students’] opinion and that’s what I’m going to be voting off of,” Hensley said. 

Prior to approval, a few of the senators were concerned that Hensley didn’t have enough leadership experience to join the Senate — and join the Senate so young as a first-year student.

Speaker of the Senate Brad Beyer disagreed and said that one of the best ways to get involved on campus is through the Senate.

“One of the aspects that I really think is great about this organization would be social mobility and offering people opportunities to really refine some of those skills,” Beyer said. 

Senate approves a new student organization

The SGA Senate also approved of a new industrial engineering honor society called Alpha Pi Mu at Sunday’s meeting. 

Madalynn Derro, senior industrial and systems engineering major, said the organization has been around on the NIU campus for about 10 years, but it wanted to become SGA-recognized to improve its outreach efforts. 

“Some of the benefits of being here are we recognize the top juniors and seniors in industrial and systems engineering for their academic achievements, it’s usually something like a GPA requirement,” Derro said. “We also increase professional development for the members and we promote networking.” 

Derro said the organization collects member fees, so they won’t need SGA funding for the future. 

“A lot of the national branches will also give an allowance for each organization branch, so that’s how we’ve been maintaining and also using the NIU Department of ISYE, they allow us to rent out rooms inside the College of Engineering,” Derro said.