Sen. Andre Rubio had a busy night during his first ASUA Senate meeting, as the new face to the student government voted on issues concerning campus safety, student voting and the upcoming UA Votes block party.

Many senators expressed their welcome to Rubio, whom students elected to fill the vacant senate seat on Sept. 17.

“”I’m really excited; it’s been a busier week than ever,”” Rubio said.

Another ASUA senator, Nick Macchiaroli, spoke about the success of the Zona Zoo trip last weekend and the Wildcats’ victory over UCLA, and also expressed his excitement about the upcoming campus block party this Friday.

The block party is a UA Votes event aimed toward encouraging students to register to vote in the upcoming November elections.

ASUA is currently holding a competition for clubs that sign up and join UA Votes. The club that turns in the most registration forms wins a prize of $1,000.

There were only four clubs participating as of Wednesday.

“”I would really like to help out by reaching out to more clubs to participate to benefit the ASUA relationships with clubs and also civic engagement,”” Rubio said.

ASUA’s goal is to get 5,000 students registered to vote.

“”I’ll do anything I can to contribute to that number,”” Rubio said.

“”As students, we vote less than other demographics, and those age groups that do vote the most get the most attention in terms of legislative policies,”” Rubio added. “”I think that if we get students to register and vote, this gets politicians and senators to listen to us instead of ignoring us like they mostly do.””

Members of the organization Camp Wildcat discussed their increase in funds that the Senate passed earlier this week. Sen. Emily Fritze said she was happy with the increase, as was Sen. Bryan Baker, who mentioned the close relationship that ASUA and Camp Wildcat share.

Recently, Mock United Nations requested and were granted funds. Macchiaroli questioned how the $1,000 would be used. Fritze said the amount was fair, because the funds will go toward registration fees for members so that they can have more representation at their conferences.

Sen. Jason Mighdoll spoke about campus safety, as he recently returned from a seminar addressing the campus security post at Virginia Tech. He said surveys will be distributed to residence halls to determine whether the students want security cameras for increased safety, or whether they would view this as a violation of their privacy. Mighdoll is working with Residence Life on this issue.