AUSA Senate passed Resolution 1B, which will add three new senate seats representing the Korbel School of International Studies, the Lamont School of Performing Arts and the Hotel Restaurant and Tourism Management department by a unanimous vote last Tuesday night.

The resolution, sponsored by senators John McMahon, Javier Ogaz, Tess Cromer and Mary Jean O’Malley, will also restructure the existing senate seats so that the Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences departments are each represented individually by one senator.

Natural Sciences, Math and Engineering and the Science Engineering and Computer Sciences majors, previously represented all together by two senators will now be represented separately with one senate seat each. There will still be two senators representing each academic year and two senators each representing on and off campus students. The changes will bring the total number of senate seats to 21 from 18.

The existing senate will interview applicants for the three new positions at the senate meeting next Tuesday and vote in closed session on candidates who will fill the positions until senate elections are held again in the spring.

Under the new senate structure created by the new legislation every student is represented by five or six seats on the senate, according to McMahon.

“DU puts a lot of capital into the Korbel and Lamont schools and they are big selling points for the university. Not having them represented on this senate downplays their importance on campus,” McMahon said at the senate meeting.

“This resolution makes sense, and [these changes are] something that should happen,” Ogaz said.

During discussion on the senate floor several senators expressed reservations about the new HRTM seat, since the major is technically part of the Daniels College of Business which is already represented by two senators. However since the department has its own curriculum and building outside of Daniels it “makes sense” for it to be separately represented, McMahon said.

The resolution passed on Tuesday grew out of a discussion about more diversified representation on senate that began last spring and a similar resolution read in senate and tabled at the end of last quarter.

Applications for the new senate positions will be available on the AUSA Web site tomorrow. They are due by Feb. 2.