The Senate convened on Sunday to recognize a club and discuss uses for remaining Senate funds in its final weekly meeting of the semester.

The Senate first heard from two student representatives from the Vietnamese Student Association, who asked the Senate for recognition. The students said that the VSA would provide a space for awareness, appreciation and community. They explained that Southeast Asia Club, which represents 11 Southeast Asian nations, was too large to give enough attention to Vietnamese culture in particular. The Senate voted unanimously to recognize the VSA.

In the executive officer reports, Student Union Vice President David Herbstritt ’17 described the ongoing proposal to assemble a 12-person committee that would convene regularly to evaluate how student space across the University is split among groups and individuals applying for reserved or designated spaces.

This committee would include Senior Vice President of Students and Enrollment Andrew Flagel, the still-unnamed Chief Diversity Officer, Dean of Students Jamele Adams, Assistant Deans of Students Monique Pillow Gnanaratnam and Stephanie Grimes, the Director of the Multifaith Chaplaincy, the Student Union President, a Senate Representative, an E-Board Representative and three students, who would be elected by their peers. The structure of the committee will be put to vote by the student body.

Next, Executive Senator Paul Sindberg ’18 spoke about reinstating the tradition of nominating and awarding Senate members for their various accomplishments in order to be “recognized by each other, and by the student body at large.”

In committee chair reports, North Quad Senator Hannah Brown ’19, the chair of the Senate Dining Committee, spoke about the most recent meeting with the Dining Committee, sharing that upcoming plans include a soft-serve frozen yogurt machine in Upper Usdan, as well as a new app from Sodexo.

Ridgewood Senator Mitchell Beers ’16, the chair of the Campus Operations Working Group committee, spoke about a recent discussion with a Library and Technology Services manager about raising the privacy levels of the computers in the Romper Room to the same levels of those in other parts of campus, such as the library.

Beers proposed that this change could make the Romper Room a more efficient tool, as computers with a higher level of security would not be susceptible to being disconnected from the printers, among other advantages.

A proposed Senate Money Request for Midnight Buffet funding was unanimously approved by the Senate.

The senators also discussed what would be done with any leftover Senate funds. Suggestions for use of the funds included applying them to next year’s Turkey Shuttles and allowing them to rollover to next year. Herbstritt said that he will be looking into the bylaws before any decision is made on how the leftover funds will be spent.

The meeting adjourned after individual senator reports and the open forum session.

—Rachel Moore