The Associated Student Body Senate passed legislation that reorganized the Secretary’s Department and approved nominations for various positions within the senate on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
Three open seats were filled Tuesday by senate vote. Six candidates gave presentations about their motivations for running, qualifications and the type of legislation they would like to pursue. Sara Abdrabbo, Kayt Davis and Sheridan Garbe were elected and formally confirmed as senators.
“I’m excited. This is my second time going, so I was a little discouraged the first time,” Davis said. “But I had a senator reach out to me and kind of pump me up, so here I am again and I did it.”
Davis, a freshman English major, added that she wants to focus on student finances.
“I’m really into the financials of it,” Davis said. “I want to make college as affordable as possible because so many students are establishing themselves outside of their parents, and sometimes college isn’t really accessible for that, so I’d really like to make that happen.”
Abdrabbo, a biological science major, echoed Davis’ excitement.
“I feel really, really good. I hope to fix this attendance policy because I don’t believe that grades should be deducted if mental health reasons are at play,” Abdrabbo said. “I think that this is something the university can do better on.”
The Senate also unanimously passed SB 25-1, which would restructure the organization of the Secretary’s Department within the ASB code.
“I’m really excited that (this bill) got passed tonight,” Kayle Amos, a public policy leadership major, Campus Equity and Advocacy senator and co-author of the bill, said. “I started ASB in the Secretary’s Department as a freshman. That was the first ever hands-on experience I had with ASB, so I have a heart for the department and am really passionate about it.”
The Secretary’s Department records the minutes of all meetings held by the President’s Cabinet and executive officers and compiles senators’ voting and attendance records. The department is also in charge of organizing and executing event programming and leading marketing and public relations campaigns.
The objective of the legislation is to make the Secretary’s Department more efficient.
“This piece of legislation is going to make things run smoothly for the department and make their jobs easier,” Amos said. “It’ll also make getting involved with the Secretary’s Department easier and more accessible. That makes our lives easier and helps us please the student body.”
ASB Secretary Braxton Dagg, a junior integrated marketing communications major, said the organizational shift is welcome.
“With the structure now, it’s not hard to keep up with all that goes on, but it is a task,” Dagg said. “Now it’s structured in a much better way, and you can see what the secretary does in day to day life.”
Dagg elaborated on Amos’ description of the bill.
“(The bill) is going to help both within our organization and throughout the student body,” Dagg said. “This allows for more programming events and more outreach for students and for more transparency within our organization.”
The Senate also voted to confirm several deputy comptrollers within the Treasury Department, three nominees for ethical review board membership and a nominee for sergeant at arms. All were voted in unanimously.
ASB President Hannah Watts, a senior public policy major, also gave the Senate a beginning of the semester State of the ASB address.
