The University Student Senate adopted a resolution Thursday supporting students who stage nonviolent protests in public buildings during business hours.

The stance was made a day after police were needed to remove several students who held a sit-in Wednesday at Morrill Hall.

The Student Senate meeting was the last of the academic year.

The group also approved Josh Breyfogle as the new chairman.

Breyfogle is a College of Education and Human Service Professions student at the University’s Duluth campus.

Laurie Stone, a student senator for the Council of Graduate Students, said the resolution was in response to the Morrill Hall sit-in.

“We want to back students’ rights to voice their opinions,” she said.

The Senate also elected Josh Beiningen and Rick Orr as new student representatives to the Senate Committee on Committees. Beiningen is a College of Natural Resources junior. Orr is a senior in the College of Liberal Arts.

Orr said he was excited because the new position lends him the knowledge of student committees and organizations.

At the meeting, student senators tabled a vote to decide whether to alter membership, said Nathan Wanderman, Student Senate chairman.

The medical and pharmacy colleges at the Duluth and Twin Cities campuses are accredited as the same academic body, but each has its own senators on the Student Senate.

Student senators have debated whether the colleges should be represented by the same senators, Wanderman said. Some are concerned medical and pharmacy students on the Duluth campus felt there was inadequate communication between the two campuses, he said.

“We didn’t want to vote away the Duluth students’ ability to take part in the senator-picking process before the med schools in the Twin Cities and Duluth got together to figure out a way to collaborate in selecting representatives,” he said.