The typical chatter of senators and public attendees immediately before the Oct. 2 student senate meeting was interrupted by a campus security guard, alerting them of a tornado warning in the area.

“It was a first-time experience for me,” Benjamin Dodge, junior pre-med major and social vice president of the senate, said.

The guard notified those in attendance that, if the tornado was to come through the university, the location of the meeting posed a serious threat due to the large windows in the conference room on the third floor Stover, where the meetings are typically held.

Tyler McCoy, senior history major and president of student senate, says that the security guard declared the conference room “the most dangerous place you could be” in the event of a tornado.

“The building itself is brick so we’re pretty safe,” McCoy said.

The panic and excitement of this warning caused senators to begin the meeting early and fly through the typical procedural matters such as role call and the review of minutes.

By the scheduled start of the meeting at 5:30 p.m., the senate had already moved through the entirety of the minutes, leaving only committee meetings to take place.

Senators and members of the public quickly grabbed their things and evacuated the conference room.

The committees, composed of three groups, moved swiftly into the hall between the conference room and the Student Services office to discuss their perspective goals and related topics.

The committees talked loudly among their members, as their voices were muffled by the loud storm, other senate members who were crammed in a tight space.

During these meetings, Dodge, who heads the event planning committee, goes through the tasks given to his members over the week and collects updates.

After the allotted 10 minutes for the committee meetings elapse, the heads of each committee typically give a short summary of what was discussed or approved during their scheduled time.

This summary acts as the only insight the public is allowed into the committee meetings, as non-senators are instructed to not linger around in an attempt to overhear the committee discussions.

Following the committee meetings, Lauren Harvey, junior accounting major and treasurer of the senate, declined to elaborate on what her committee discussed during this time.

Dodge, in his committee, had further talks about advertising HarvestFest, which was given a theme of cartoons at last week’s meeting.

“HarvestFest is our next event. But as that finishes up we’re now looking towards the christmas tree lighting in November,” Dodge said.

The 10 minutes of committee meetings composed the vast majority of the Oct. 2 meeting, as the discussion before and following the committee talk lasted a total of two minutes.

The meeting, labeled as “unique” by McCoy, was a diversion from the senate’s typical orderly fashion.

“Tonight’s meeting was as exciting as the weather,” Dodge said.