The MSMS senate held their weekly meeting, debating the first bills and selecting two new senators from Goen Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 16. After a ten-minute period of senators speaking on the merits of the three nominees, they voted and confirmed seniors Ada Fulgham and Samaria Swims as the newest additions to the Senate.

Second-year senator Faith Brown presented the first bill of the year. Currently, the “fingertip rule” in the handbook states that garments must extend to the wearer’s fingertips or longer when their arms are relaxed at their side. Brown’s bill will change that to the vertical length of a standard index card above the knee if signed into effect. Brown’s reasoning for the bill centered around establishing a standard for all students since fingertip length is not the same for everyone.

Brown addressed the senate regarding her concerns about the fingertip rule.

“The goal of the bill is to totally take away the fingertip rule because it’s unfair to certain people, and I just really want to establish a standard instead,” Brown said.

After roughly twenty minutes of debate, the bill passed with the needed three-fifths majority. Brown shared her thoughts on whether or not it would be signed into effect by the administration.

“I’m not sure if my bill is going to get passed, but I would really like the administration to keep an open mind about it,” Brown said.

Junior Aaron Wan proposed the second bill of the meeting. Its purpose was to reduce the penalties for tardiness to first period. Wan explained that his bill was largely related to oversleeping and adjusting to life at MSMS.

“What the bill would really do is make the consequences for being tardy less strict by giving students three warnings before they are punished and also decrease the severity of those punishments,” Wan said.

However, after over twenty minutes of debate, the Senate had not reached a consensus due to the complexities of the bill, leading them to table, or save further discussion of, the bill for the next meeting.

After the bill was tabled, Wan shared his plans to get the bill passed next meeting.

“Next meeting, to increase the likelihood of it getting passed by both the Senate and administration, we’re probably just going to reduce it to two warnings,” Wan said.

By the end of the year, each senator is required to write at least one bill, and many senators are looking to their classmates for ideas. Junior Cameron Wright discussed going a step further to get those ideas.

“Recently, I emailed all the people on my floor a Microsoft document asking for the changes they want to be made, and I encourage all other senators to do the same,” Wright said.

The Senate will resume debate on Wan’s bill, along with the introduction of new bills, next Tuesday, Sept. 24.