The Student Senate meeting on Sunday opened up with an appearance by Campus Recreation Director Stacey Hall, who proceeded to present Student Body President Jonathan Dean with a framed photo collage that showcased students partaking in activities at the newly renovated Hamel Recreation Center (HRC). Student Senate Executive Officer Cameron Cook, who was the acting speaker for Sunday’s meeting, noted that the framed photo was a “recognition gift.” However, Dean implied that he shouldn’t be the one receiving all the credit.
“[Hall] presented [the framed photo collage] as more of a thank you for all the hard work by all the students over the years—for giving their input and being involved in this joint process,” Dean said. “I was just the guy at the end of it, I guess.”
According to Dean, Hall said there have been over 9,000 different students who have used the HRC since it opened up for full use at the beginning of this semester. Dean also noted that the new music and performance area of the center will soon be completed.
Sunday’s meeting also saw the confirmation of sophomore Audrey Getman as the next chairperson of the Academic Affairs Council.
“[Getman] will be a great addition to the team and take over for some of the work our former academic affairs chair, Bryce Moser, was doing,” Dean said.
Another course of action taken by the senate in the latest meeting was the addressing of a bylaw amendment that would potentially change the time-window for officers to be nominated and approved. The bill didn’t receive the necessary votes and ultimately failed.
The student senate speaker is supposed to fill the officer positions by the end of March, and according to Dean, there have been issues with this getting done because of “spring break and a number of other reasons.”
Dean said the senate voted down the bylaw amendment because “we want to hold ourselves accountable to that date, and although we may go past that date, we want to make sure we’re as close to it as possible.”
The process of nominations individuals for the position of student senate speaker, currently held by senior Alexander Fries, is currently open. Six senators were nominated for the position at Sunday’s meeting, but only three of them accepted the nomination: Ian Kyle, Brennan Pouliot and Shannon O’Hara. Student senate speaker nominations will remain open for the remainder of this week.
Finally, Jesse Austin was approved for the position of senate parliamentarian. In accepting this position, Austin has vacated his previous position as senate historian.
