The Student Assembly kicked off the school year Tuesday, approving two executive cabinet members, a full Elections Commission and two members of the Review Board.
At its meeting last semester, the senate approved the majority of the executive cabinet. The senate approved the two remaining nominees Tuesday. Secretary of Outreach Chase Koontz ’14 and Secretary of Health and Safety Jake Lewitz ’13 presented before the senate before being unanimously approved.
The senate also cemented the Elections Commission with the approval of the Chairman of the Elections Commission T.J. O’Sullivan ’13.
“We’re really the ones advocating for [freshmen’s] involvement [in the fall elections],” O’Sullivan said. “At the same time, we’re trying to make sure that the elections are run fairly, on time, in compliance with all the rules and regulations stipulated in the constitution and the code. Because when things go wrong, when the Elections Commission is not run well, when the rules are not applied fairly, it looks really rough for the SA.”
Members of the Elections Commission approved on Tuesday night include Erin Hills ’14, Jill Olszeweski ’13, Ben Migdol ’13 and Will Shimer ’13. Hills and Shimer have no SA experience, but Hills serves on the undergraduate Honor Council and Shimer has worked extensively with International Relations Club elections.
Olszeweski brings some SA experience to the group, having formerly served as Chairman of the Elections Commission in fall 2010. She currently serves as the Director of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., for the SA.
Migdol currently works as the Secretary of College Policy in the Executive Cabinet. Senator William McConnell ’14 questioned Migdol’s roles in both the executive and legislative branches of the SA.
“How do you feel about being part of the administration and, at the same time, being on the Elections Commission, which is supposed to be an impartial body?” senator William McConnell ’14 asked.
Migdol did not see any problems.
“I don’t have a horse in this race. As we’ve seen in the past, things end up falling back on the SA eventually so you might as well have people working on it from the get-go,” Migdol said. “And getting involved doing the freshman election first is a good precursor to the election in the spring.”
Two students were also appointed to the SA Review Board, the judicial branch of the SA. Reid McBride ’14 and Ben Choi ’13 will join Chairman of the Review Board Scott Hardy J.D. ’13 and four other members of the review board who were approved in April.
The senate concluded the meeting with the introduction of the Voter Registration Act, sponsored by Senator Jimmy Zhang ’15. The bill would appropriate $32.59 to the SA Department of Public Affairs for printing costs required to register voters, with an additional $60 to the department for any future printing costs.
The bill also allocates $470 and loans an additional $265 to the SA Department of Public Affairs for T-shirts that read “Hark Upon the Ballot Box.”
The SA senate will hold their weekly meetings in Morton 342 on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. and all meetings are open to the public.
