Student Senate jumped back into their weekly meetings after spring break on Wednesday, March 20, but at the Rochester campus instead of the Winona campus.

Student Senate President Christina Melecio explained the change of location for the week as a way of showing support for students on the Rochester campus and letting those students know Student Senate is there for them.

“They often feel excluded,” Melecio said. “A lot of them are nursing students that started [at the Winona campus] and then go there, so they built a community here, left and built a community there, and are trying to be a part of both communities.”

Melecio said the decision to have the meeting in Rochester the week after spring break was the most logical option because typically there are no club request presentations.

After the decision to move the meeting to Rochester, Student Senate forgot to update the student body through their social media about the move.

When asked about mishap, Melecio said getting the senators to the meeting, while making sure to follow Winona State’s club travel rules, was hectic.

“I was busy rounding up a bunch of people and making sure we could get the 19 of them to Rochester campus and find out where we’re going there and setting up all of the upstairs stuff [the conference call technology in and making sure that everything was running up there,” Melecio said. “So I just didn’t think to let anyone else know.”

Due to some senators being unable to make the trip to Rochester, it was decided the meeting would be live streamed through conference call so the senators left in Winona could still participate in the meeting.

After the meeting began, the conference call faced minor audio difficulties, as the senators located in Rochester could not hear the senators in Winona. The technical difficulties were quickly resolved, allowing both parties to speak to each other.

At the meeting Student Senate voted to give $3,000 to the international club for the international dinner.

The organization also discussed raising the student life fee by 1.9 percent. Student Senate will vote on this at the March 27 meeting.

Melecio apologized for the confusion of the move.

“I just didn’t think about [updating the student body on the move] and I am super sorry about that,” Melecio said.