Sen. Jon Knutson (left) and Sean McClain (right) attend the first senate meeting of the year. Photo by Chester Beltowski/The Dakota Student.

A new year of senate kicked off Sept. 7 featuring some old faces and many new ones.

Provost Thomas DiLorenzo and Vice President for Student Affairs Lori Reesor started the meeting giving updates on events happening around campus.

Reesor started off by mentioning enrollment, which she said will not be exactly known until the 20th day of school. She said although overall enrollment may be down, the past two years have had the largest graduating classes at UND. Reesor also said this year’s freshman class is the highest qualified, based off ACT scores, and the most ethnically diverse.

Reesor also said the grand opening ceremony for the One Stop Shop is set for Oct. 7.

DiLorenzo talked about changes coming to the library in the future.

“We want a lot of student involvement in the library,” DiLorenzo said.

President Tanner Franklin then took the opportunity to address senate for the first time this year. His biggest news was a grant given to University Police Department Chief Eric Plummer by the state for $300,000 to install 250 security cameras and electronic door access systems across campus.

Franklin and Vice President Brett Johnson also talked about parking. Franklin said they were looking into other campuses and their policies on parking to see how UND compares to other universities around the country.

“Nights, weekends, and holidays there is no ticketing on other campuses,” Franklin said. “We are trying to figure out why UND does it.”

Megan Hoffman is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].