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Ryan Berger updates the student senate on the Paws for the Cause status ATuesday night in the Arcola Tuscola of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union

Student Senate makes final push in Paws for the Cause

By: David Thill/Student government editor

Posted: 9/22/05

The Student Senate meeting ended two weeks ago with debate and heated words exchanged, but the tone at the conclusion of Wednesday's meeting was not nearly as tense.

Student Body President Ryan Berger opened the meeting by stating the Paws for the Cause fundraiser had reached $7,502.

"We're getting there," Berger said. "We can do this. The last $2,000, there are two ways it can go- it can be the hardest $2,000 or the easiest $2,000."

Berger encouraged members who have already been working to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina to keep up their efforts, and asked senate members who have not yet picked up a collection bucket to do so.

He also said that Student Government had collected $1,533 from selling beads before and during Eastern's recent home football opener and, because of the success of the effort, Student Senate will be selling beads again for the Parents' Weekend game.

"I'm hoping within the next week we'll meet our goal," Berger said.

After Berger announced Paws for the Cause had achieved three-fourths of its goal of $10,000, senate member Brian Andries pulled out a guitar and played a song he had recently written.

The focus of the song was Paws for the Cause.

"Give us some money and we'll leave you alone," Andries sang while stifling a laugh.

But Andries wasn't the only one laughing. Nearly every senate member rose to their feet, applauding, smiling and laughing at Andries' lyrics. The smiling faces were quite the contrast to the frowns seen on the faces of senate members at the end of the meeting two weeks ago.

But Paws for the Cause wasn't the only focus of the meeting.

A late addition to the agenda came in the form of Student Senate Resolution 05-06-02. The resolution, created by Kenny Kozik, shuttle bus committee chair, was an effort to create and distribute an online shuttle bus survey.

"We want to get information from students," Kozik said. "We want to get ideas on what they want; what we can do to better it (the shuttle bus)."

Kozik said he doesn't know if the survey will be able to answer some of the questions about the stability of the bus schedule, but said he hopes it will help gather some ideas from students.