Student Government convened for its final meeting of the first session Wednesday evening, with the Senate approving all cabinet nominations and supporting two recommendations aimed at improving the Iowa State experience for multicultural students.

The Senate also recognized its support for free speech following Iowa State’s annual celebration of the First Amendment.

Approved cabinet appointments include:

Additionally, the Senate passed two items of legislation that work to better address issues multicultural students face with the first bill recommending Iowa State use more inclusive ethnic and racial survey options that include Middle Eastern and North African categories.

“Adding a Middle Eastern/North African (MENA) option could relieve the individual stress of racial identity and assist in connecting students to multicultural campus resources,” the bill reads. 

Sen. Kaitlyn Sanchez sponsored the legislation, sayin she feels adding a MENA option will help make Iowa State a more inclusive environment and allow students who identify as Middle Eastern or North African to feel more comfortable.

Some senators raised whether or not the legislation could wait to be passed until the fall as an opportunity to gather more student feedback, however, Sanchez felt it could have the most impact if passed Wednesday night. 

Sen. Ihssan Ait-Boucherbil backed this sentiment, offering that starting the conversation could allow for students as early as this fall to be better introduced to resources on campus because they can better self identify in the context of university survey usage.

“I think this would really help the new incoming students find where they would need to be,” she said.

Additionally, the Senate approved a “text flexibility” resolution that recognized the difficulty many Puerto Rican students face in the admission’s process regarding their standardized test scores. 

As proposed in the legislation, many Puerto Rican students take the “Prueba de Aptitud Academica” (PAA) instead of the ACT or SAT. However, admissions into Iowa State is based on the Regent Admission Index which measures a student’s acceptance based on factors including GPA, class ranking and ACT score.

“Iowa State University can broaden its horizon of applicants and make the education they offer attainable to many more students if they accept other countries’ standardized tests, and the U.S. citizens in the territory of Puerto Rico is a great place to start,” the bill reads.

While the legislation approved by Student Government is just a recommendation, the Senate is hopeful it can open a dialogue on collegiate admissions and standardized testing.

If any changes were to be implemented, it would have to be approved by the Iowa Board of Regents and most likely implemented at the two other Regent universities in Iowa, as well.

After nearly three hours of meeting, the Senate convened for its last meeting of the semester and will meet again beginning August 2018.