During this week’s Student Senate meeting, Asian Council representative Shawheen Molavi and Indian Student Association President Shakeel Mehdi voiced their concerns over the vacant Asian-American senate seat.

“We want our voices to be heard on Student Senate,” Molavi said.

Mehdi, who applied for the seat but was not voted in, asked the senate why he was not chosen in a contentious discussion that lasted nearly an hour.

“The senate’s decision to vote me in should not be based on personal reasons, but based on merit,” Mehdi said. “If the Asian community believes that I can represent them the best then I should on senate because I represent them, not senate,”

Parliamentarian John Jose understands the Asian Council’s concern over the empty seat.

“I completely agree that there should be an Asian-American voice in the Senate,” Jose said.

The Asian-American Senate seat has been vacant since Alan Lin stepped down the second week of the semester. A committee that reviewed Mehdi’s application gave a yes recommendation to the entire senate.

The senate did not hold debate on the appointment, rather it only had an up or down vote.

President Katherine Tullos said she doesn’t know why the senate did not approve Mehdi’ s application and that it would be hard to speculate on the specific reasons individual senators voted against him.

Also at this week’s meeting, President of Faculty Senate Dr. Gary Evans discussed with the senators the Bush Library Complex, substance abuse, Fall Break, academic affordability and curriculum rigor.

“One of my personal concerns is affordability of an undergraduate education,” Evans said. “We have so many students leaving here in huge debt.”

The senate passed a motion to fund $150 to the Class of 2011 and $363 to Delta Sigma Pi.

After some debate, the senate passed a motion to fund $1,000 to the Health Center for cold care kits. Senator Reed Hanson disagreed with the funding.

“I feel that this falls under a student services area that is normally paid for out of tuition,” Hanson said.