Editor’s note: Due to the limited amount of space in the print edition this editorial was printed in, the full version is here.

The Facts: The Student Senate conducted their final meeting of the 90th session last Wednesday. Senators mainly proposed bills ending the session, including the Adjournment Sine Die legislation, which ends the session by naming the accomplishments of the Student Senate this session.

Our Opinion: After observing a portion of the meeting, along with interviewing anonymous senators, the final senate meeting was an utter embarrassment to Student Government. The lack of professionalism from senators and their leaders at this meeting should be an example to the 91st session of how not to conduct a meeting.

In any type of formal meeting, organizations are compelled to use the up-most professionalism and follow the appropriate Parliamentary Procedure to run an effective meeting. Last Wednesday’s senate meeting was the furthest thing from that.

Student Government’s faculty advisor was unable to attend the meeting, due to a personal emergency. In her absence, the meeting was run with senators speaking out of turn, leaders using profane language and even compromising parliamentary procedures to pass the appropriate legislation to formally end the session.

The Senate President elect, Ethan Harrelson, should use this meeting as an example of how not to run the senate meetings in the upcoming session.

According to the current Senate President, Stephen Kouba, 19 senators were absent from the meeting at the initial roll-call and by the end of the meeting four senators had walked out for various reasons. No matter the reason, aside from a personal emergency, senators should have the professionalism to see through their constituents’ concerns to the end of the meeting.

Among these mere procedural faults of the meeting, President Kouba flew through the agenda as if he was an auctioneer, auctioning off pieces of the senate’s proposed legislation. Other senators said the meeting mirrored a different meeting of the session, referring to the second meeting of the session, where Kouba attempted to appoint many of his fraternity brothers to the senate, sparking controversy and a divide within the senate.

Kouba later said he interpreted this behavior as waving his “magic wand” to get things done. Unfortunately for him, this wand was not able to “bippity boppity boo” his leadership abilities to the ball. Many senators claimed this was one of the worst meetings they have attended this session, and if their advisor were present, she would not have tolerated the actions that occurred.

Along with the lack of leadership in the meeting, Senator Patrick Devore attempted to use his position in the senate to settle a personal vendetta against other student organizations on campus, namely Student Media, which does not fall under Student Government’s jurisdiction.

Unfortunately for constituents, according to Article II, Section V of the Student Body Constitution, “the Student Senate shall establish its own rules of procedure which shall be included in the Student Body Statutes.” This justifies the actions of incompetent leaders and apathetic senators at this meeting. Looking ahead, the future leaders of the senate should establish the proper guidelines for meetings and enforce them.

The senate should be a body that does not rely on their faculty advisor to hold their hands through meetings. It should function with the proper professionalism and effectiveness expected of it by constituents.

If students witnessed the free-for-all of this meeting, the senators responsible could guarantee their removal from office for the next term. While it was the final meeting, the atmosphere had the potential to be more relaxed. There is a line between relaxed and unprofessional—and the senate could barely see the line from where they were standing in their last meeting.