The Binghamton University Student Congress gathered Monday night for its first meeting back from break, passed three pieces of legislation and began planning for the upcoming events of the semester.

After welcome back announcements by the Student Association (SA) Executive Board, Julie Kline, chair of the Planning, Research and Elections (PRE) Committee and a junior double-majoring in human development and English, announced that advertising for SA E-Board elections will officially begin on Tuesday, January 26.

Student Congress members unanimously passed pieces of legislation to create positions for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs,) to revise election bylaws so that elections were officially conducted through electronic ballots and to authorize a graduate student to be elected and sit on the BU Council without voting powers.

According to Kline, the electronic bylaws revision to formally move to an online format will not result in a large change, but will officially outline a format which has been used in the past three SA elections.

“These bylaws changes will simply bring our governing documents up to date with what has been our practice for the past three SA E-board elections,” Kline said. “In other words, this is what we’ve been doing, now we’re making it legit.”

Amanda Baker, the vice president of academic affairs (VPAA) and a senior double-majoring in mathematics and history, presented the legislation to formally create UTAs, a position she said already unofficially exists in the Watson School of Engineering and Decker School of Nursing. She said she hopes to bring the role to all schools to encourage student teaching.

“Undergrads in all schools will have the opportunity to teach … It provides students the opportunity to really use what they’ve learned,” Baker said. “There are requirements; you have to maintain a certain grade set by the department to ensure the student knows all the material.”

Bernadette Machuca, vice president for programming and a senior majoring in biology, also announced that two comedy shows have been scheduled for both February and April, and that the Spring Fling performer will be announced in April.