The Student Senate took the last step to completing the new Student Union Constitution at Wednesday's meeting, after passing the only article not yet signed into law.
Article V, which establishes an Executive Programming Board to set the Student Union calendar, was up for Senate adoption after former student body president Jeremy Lao refused to sign it with the rest of the Constitution. Lao argued the Council of Representatives has sufficient collaboration among student leaders to be able to work with the calendar, and that the new body would be redundant.
"We made the Council of Representatives to be the most representative body possible. This responsibility can just be moved in with the others," Lao said.
Cavanaugh senator Jordan Bongiovanni disagreed.
"It has never been our policy to heap another burden on a body just because it exists," Bongiovanni said. "In COR, there needs to be an emphasis on policy, not programming."
Siegfried senator James Leito spoke for the passage of the article, citing that the new group would open channels of communication not currently available among student government.
"This isn't a power issue, because no one person on this board is going to have control over another," Leito said. "This is about eliminating overlap and making sure we don't get five events on one weekend and none on another."
Student body president Adam Istvan passed on a recommendation from the Council of Representatives that the Senate pass the article, which stated that COR "is not an appropriate venue for calendar coordination due to the presence of senators, the Student Union Treasurer, and the Judicial Council President."
The Senate voted 19 to three, with three abstaining, to adopt Article V. An amendment that would give specific to the calendar-setting group failed to pass, despite Lao's insistence at its necessity.
In other Senate news:
u Keenan freshman Pat Arg-entieri asked Senate to support an effort to open up debate about parietals with the administration. In a two-page letter addressed to the administration and members of the Office of Student Activities and drafted by members of Argentieri's Introduction to Business class, students propose the elimination of parietals on weekends, among other changes to the current system.
"This letter is basically a series of rebuttals to any argument the administration might have to the change," Argentieri said.
The letter also recommends the formation of a committee of students to work through the matter with the administration.
Argentieri said that he expects no action to be taken until the start of the fall semester, but that he wanted to get student signatures on the current draft of the letter to make sure it had solid backing.
Though senators encouraged Argentieri to pursue the issue, they expressed concern over the channels he was going through, suggesting that he approach the Campus Life Council instead.
Leito, among others, also pointed out that any changes made to the letter after amassing signatures would render the petition invalid, and that the senators could not give it to their dorms before it was in its final form.
