New legislation hit the floor for the first time in several weeks at Marquette University Student Government’s weekly meeting Monday.

The legislation would give the Office of Student Development control of creating and implementing a procedure for approving new student organizations.

“I think this legislation is important,” Legislative Vice President Ricky Krajewski said. “This has been something MUSG has struggled with in the four years I have been here.”

Currently, the procedure for creating a new student organization involves applying to OSD, waiting for approval, drafting a constitution to be approved by OSD and then repeating the last two steps with the MUSG Student Organization Committee.

“Right now we have 300-something student organizations on campus,” Senator J.R. O’Rourke said. “There are several organizations that are duplicates of each other. For example, there are two debate teams paying dues to the same national organization.”

The new legislation was presented to the Senate for discussion. It will be revised and presented again at the next meeting.

Several senators offered their opinions on the new legislation and voiced concerns on how accountable OSD would be with following the criteria and the level of involvement MUSG would have.

“I think a lot of senators are on board with this change and want to see the best legislation for the student body as possible,” Senator Sebastian Becerra said. “We are OK with OSD leading that process, for now but we want to also continue to be a part of it.”

Senators noticed a change in attitude and discussion at Monday’s meeting.

“There is definitely a big difference in this Senate,” O’Rourke said. “Tonight was done so well. There is a new attitude in MUSG and it’s because of the new president and executive vice president.”

Ben Dombrowski and Allie Bitz were elected MUSG president and vice president, respectively, last week. Becerra said he could also feel a change in attitude between Senate members. “This Senate meeting felt a little different and with new people, I think MUSG turned over a new leaf.”

Previous MUSG President Adam Kouhel was not present at the meeting and declined to comment on the election.

According to O’Rourke, Kouhel informed members that he “was not interested in being involved anymore.”

Traditionally, former presidents sit in on meetings and help the new elects transition into their positions.

“It’s weird that Kouhel didn’t show up tonight,” O’Rourke said. “There is legislation leftover from the previous administration, like the senior block party, that needed to be planned and still needs to be planned now.”

Krajewski said MUSG will have its hands full in the near future.

“There are a lot of things happening,” Krajewski said. “There will be two to three more pieces of legislation coming to the floor over the next couple of weeks.”