SMU’s Student Senate membership chair Anthony McAuliffe called for an overhaul of the senate’s current election code during the Senate’s weekly meeting on Tuesday.

McAuliffe’s changes to the election code include raising the current required grade point average from a 2.5 to a 3.0 and clearing up the rules involving write-in candidates and their role during the election process.

If McAuliffe’s GPA requirements passe as “old business” during next week’s meeting, SMU’s student senate GPA requirement will surpass that of the university’s standards as well as the Greek system’s GPA cut-off.

“As Senators, it is our responsibility to effectively represent the interests of the student body. Academics, however, are first and foremost on campus,” McAuliffe said. “If you struggle with grade, you will not be able to maintain balance and will potentially sacrifice time that should be spent on senate matters, hurting the student body.”

In terms of dealing with write-in candidates, McAuliffe calls the current election code “vague” and believes that “since write-ins have not gone through the formal process as every other candidate, they should not be allowed the same privileges.”

McAuliffe’s recommendations will have a week to garner complaints or concerns before next week’s Senate meeting.

A total of five new pieces of legislation were brought to the senate floor Tuesday afternoon, starting with a piece written by Senators Jaywin Malhi, Cohagen Wilkinson and An Phan.

The trio calls for a halt to the “excessive, irrelevant emails” the student body receives. The group proposed a solution that includes an option for students to “unsubscribe” to certain mailing lists.

“This legislation was about formally recognizing the Office of Information Technology for their work regarding the issue of excessive, irrelevant emails to students,” Malhi said. “Essentially, we want a system where students can unsubscribe from certain email feeds, much like is done with any other mass email system. Several other universities, such as Rice and University of Texas, do this.”

Sen. Joseph Esau presented two pieces of new legislation during the meeting.

The first piece dealt with the renaming of the Dedman I Senate position. Since the Registrar has officially recognized undecided students in their own category, Esau believes Senate is responsible to update Senate titles in accordance with changes administrated.

Esau’s second piece of legislation called for the addition of a spirit shop in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center.

“The spirit shop is an important component to many student centers across university campuses nationwide. As chair of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Governing Board, one of the biggest complaints I receive is the lack of one, especially during admission tours or AARO,” Esau said. “It is my responsibility to present these issues before the Student Senate and voice the concerns of the students I represent.”

Legislation honoring the service of Rose Torres, a recent retired employee of the university, was brought forth by senators Jeff Whelan, Savannah Stephens, John David Mahaffey and Monica Finnegan.

The last piece of new legislation presented was from senators Zia Omar, JingJing Yang and Martha Pool. The piece concerned Senate training and the lack there of.

“I proposed this legislation after hearing numerous complaints from senators that they had not been trained adequately,” Pool said. “The purpose of this legislation is a prompting for senate to take its job much more seriously and begin by giving senators the tools they need to succeed and to properly represent their constituents in the chamber.”

In regards to “old business,” or legislation presented during last week’s meeting, the chamber passed legislation that concerned the lack of ATMs on campus, the publishing of the financial aid process, the need for reservations in the commuter lounge, the extension of time allotted between classes and the addition of a service button for PerunaNet, the school’s on-campus wireless Internet system.

Senate’s next meeting will be its last before it inaugurates the new senators and student body officers for the fall 2012 semester.