Twenty senators were present in room 132 of the Campus Center Auditorium on Tuesday for the weekly Student Association senate meeting.
With the change of scenery, this would mark the final meeting where current President Anthony Smith and Vice President Francisco Perez would be in office. President-elect Tucker Sholtes and Vice President-elect Neely Laufer will be sworn in on April 1 to begin their year-long terms.
The minutes from the last meeting, which took place the Tuesday before spring break, were approved, along with the agenda for the meeting.
Reflections of their times with SA came from Smith, Perez and Director of Finance Hassan Al-Shareffi, along with words of encouragement for the future of the organization.
Smith told the senate that he thinks that the group would all become “massive student leaders” one day. He reminded them that SA is about change, something he’s reinforced throughout his term.
Smith said that he was finishing up things to prepare Sholtes before he takes office on Tuesday and talked about his final executive order. The order gives guidelines as to who can be provided with stoles for graduation if they were a member of SA. While executive positions will get them for their term, senators will get them if they served two years with at least one full semester each year. The stoles allow members to be recognized for their involvement when they graduate.
Before wrapping up his speech to the senate, Smith left the senators with some words of advice.
“Don’t ever take no for an answer, ever,” Smith said.
Perez, while only being vice president for this semester, was glad he took on the role. He said he was on the fence about returning to SA in the fall, but is proud to see how far the senate has grown since the beginning.
Al-Shareffi thanked Perez, Smith and Director of Student Involvement Rhay Guillen for their time together. He said he did not know how this year with SA would work out after losing multiple members to graduation and other ways. He said that he is “pleasantly surprised” with how things have gone.
Despite Smith and Perez ending their terms on April 1, Al-Shareffi will remain with SA until the beginning of the summer. He is looking through possible candidates for his replacement and will soon have three candidates for Sholtes to choose from. He added that he reached out to administrators for more information regarding student fees and what they are used for. In closing, Al-Shareffi welcomed Sholtes to the organization.
None of the committees met because of spring break, but the involvement committee will soon have senator information posters as well as a poster for the meet your senator day on April 25.
A resolution with the official election results was passed by the senate unanimously. Senator Jillian Kranz said that she hopes for “an actual election” next year.
Three resolutions followed as thank yous for Guillen, Perez and Smith. Guillen was given the title of senator emeritus, Perez the title of vice president emeritus and Smith the title of president emeritus. Perez was called a “mature force to be reckoned with” and a “devilishly fashionable member of society” in the resolution thanking him for his service. All three were passed with a vote by standing ovation.
Legislation regarding funding for the Public Relations Student Society of America is to hold tie dying in the Academic Quad during Com Week. The bill was referred to the finance committee for one week.
