Student Senate ratified the constitution for the National Society of Leadership and Success with a voice vote Monday night.

This organization, new to Eau Claire, aims to make strong leaders, junior Organizations Director Jessi Van Natta said.

Normally when something like this is introduced, the constitution isn’t voted on until a later meeting, but Van Natta said that the student who introduced the constitution needed it ratified sooner to help fulfill a part of her internship. She tried to introduce it last semester but ran out of time.

Van Natta originally told her that she thought it would be put to a vote on September 12, but that date came and went, so she wanted to get the vote as close to that date as possible.

“I didn’t want to go back on my word as commission director and a representative of Student Senate.”

Due to this, it was agreed to move the date of the ratification up.

Senior Senator Paydon Miller said that in this case suspending the rules was warranted, but he warned the body to not overuse this function.

“A couple of times last year we opened ourselves up to a couple different problems because we made it the norm to suspend the rules,” he said.

There was also an introduction of a bill that supports holding a referendum to stay in United Council. Each student has to pay a $3 fee per semester, but that fee is refundable even if the referendum passes, according
to the bill.

Intergovernmental Affairs Commission Director Ben Krall introduced the bill and is also on the executive board for UC. He said that the council is important because it is a united group for student which is better than fragmentation.

“Having 26 individual campuses fight for higher education, they are going to be fighting for themselves,” Krall said, “not the greater good for public education through-out the state.”

If the bill goes through, the referendum would occur on Oct. 26 and 27.