Student Senate approved changes to its Election Code during its Tuesday meeting, getting ready for the general elections that will be held on March 30 and 31.

The revisions are intended to improve the voting process and prevent election wrongdoing.

Changes include:

• Defining “mass e-mails” as e-mails sent from one of the general SMU listservs.
• Prohibiting candidates from campaigning through mass e-mails, either on their own or having someone send a mass e-mail on their behalf.
• Changing “double majors” to “multiple majors” to accommodate students with minors or triple majors.
• Adding a provision to prohibit campaigning within 25 feet of a polling place or a student who is in the process of voting.
• Updating the name of the Campus Planning and Plant Operations to its new name, the Office of Facilities Management and Sustainability.
• Adding a dollar amount of $2 to stake signs.

Additionally, the membership chair will no longer be required to take candidates on a tour of the Greek houses. This revision does not prohibit the chair from doing so.

Several Senators expressed concern about this revision during the March 1 meeting, saying that it was a good way for non-Greek candidates to meet Greek students (and vice-versa). However, Membership Chair Katherine Ladner told Senate that she would be taking candidates to Greek houses in the upcoming election.

Student Senate also passed two pieces of legislation during Tuesday’s meeting.

The first bill allows probationary- and temporary-chartered organizations to access the Use of Campus Grounds Form, which allows them to use campus grounds.

The bill, authored by Parliamentarian Joseph Esau and Organizations Chair Bethany Mackingtee, gives the organizations chair the power to indicate that Student Senate is the sponsoring organization on the Use of Grounds Form and other authorizing documents for organizations that have been granted probationary or temporary charters.

Many Senators expressed their support for the bill.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Sen. Rachel Fox (Dedman II) said, “because how are you supposed to see how an organization is going to function if you charter it if you don’t allow them to function as an organization?”

However, Sen. Christian Genco (Lyle) had issues with the bill’s wording. Although he said he supported the bill’s concept, he was concerned that the language could potentially lead to probationary- or temporary-chartered organizations blocking groups who already have charters.

“I would like to see something in there that says ‘Organizations in probationary status will not have precedence over already-established organizations,'” he said.

The second bill, authored by Student Body Vice President Austin Prentice, Chief of Staff Alex Mace and Scholarship Chair William Badarak, reestablishes the Student Senate Endowment Committee.

This committee will be responsible for growing the Senate Endowment, which funds Senate Scholarships. Currently, this job is under the jurisdiction of the scholarship committee.

The authors told Senate that the scholarship committee had mainly set aside their job of increasing the endowment so that they could focus on awarding Senate scholarships and that the job was big enough to merit its own committee.

Student Senate used to have an Endowment Committee, but they later abolished it.

The newly re-established committee will have a vice chair to oversee it. It will focus on growing the endowment through fundraising. It will also be charged with creating and maintaining a list of Senate alumni, as the authors believe this list will be helpful in fundraising.