Student senate will vote on two pieces of legislation at its meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The first bill seeks to allow students to use laptops in all classes, unless “there are complaints that one student’s use has a negative external effect on other students, in which case that student’s use should be limited.”

Bill author Alex Ehmke (Dedman II) said he wants to give students the choice to take notes on their computers instead of writing them on paper, if they wish.

Ehmke acknowledged that many students would use laptops for other purposes than note taking, but said it wouldn’t matter if they had a laptop or not: They wouldn’t be paying attention to the class anyways.

The second bill aims to implement a four-year scholarship program using a portion of the anticipated student fees increase.

Bill authors Catherine Essig (African-American), Alejandra Aguirre (Hispanic-American) and Jake Torres (student body president) want to take $11 out of the next fee increase to “create a permanent Senate Scholar program available to students from the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.”

They reason the program will provide additional financial support to at least four incoming freshmen throughout their four years at SMU. They say the program will help attract DFW students to SMU, who often find the financial hurdle too much to overcome.

Torres also said he hoped it would strengthen SMU-Dallas ties.