The Student Senate Internal Affairs Committee held its first meeting of the year where an unexpected intrusion from an anonymous caller displaying an uncensored pornographic video occurred.
Known as porn-bombing, the explicit content only lasted a brief eight seconds before the host of the meeting removed the individual. Following the individuals removal the senators apologized, however most participants found the incident comical.
Only four individuals were present for the meeting. Sen. Auryon Azar, Speaker of the Senate, and Sen. Tyler Kochman, Senate Parliamentarian, along with two prospective senate candidates. Azar was the host of the meeting, and although the meeting was public, Azar was required to permit entry to participants from a virtual waiting room. Azar was also capable of removing any participants from the meeting.
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During the meeting the committee approved a new student senator application packet. The applications removes a requirement of 50 signatures to be collected by prospective candidates in order to be eligible for a senate seat. This change comes as COVID-19 poses a challenge to collecting in–person signatures.
In response to a question regarding how EMU students would be able to express their views on potential candidates, Sen. Kochman gave a possible substitute to the signatures.
“I have been thinking about having [EMU students] coming to Senate meetings to act as character witnesses for candidate . . . I will have to talk with the Student Government advisors to see if that is a possibility,” Kochman said.
“It is a tricky game of wanting people to be more engaged in Student Government, and at the same time making sure you are vetting people,“ Azar said. "The idea is to get people engaged and walk the fine line of making sure they are actually good people that want to do good things for the student body,”
The applicants for Student Senate will not be public knowledge until the senate meeting which will decide whether or not they should be allowed to join the Senate.
The new senate application has been finalized, however a method of how it will be distributed among students has yet to be announced. The new application does not include a clause requiring a character witness.
For more information on the application and process, view the Student Government website.
