Senate welcomes new members

The Student Association Senate welcomed seven new senators at its Oct. 12 meeting.

The Senate filled four seats for the Elliott School of International Affairs and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development; it also appointed three non-voting freshman senators.

The Senate approved Ryan DeMerlis (ESIA-U) after the Rules Committee selected him to fill an additional seat that opened after the Elliott School’s undergraduate population rose to about 2,000 students.

Heather Williams (ESIA-G) was also appointed last week along with Andrew Salzman (GSEHD-G) and Tabitha Byrd (GSEHD-G). The new graduate senators will sit on the Student Life and Finance and Academic Affairs committees, respectively.

The Rules Committee chose nine candidates to interview from a pool of 54 applicants for the three non-voting freshman seats. Maggie Beckham (ESIA-U), Pere Garlinghouse (ESIA-U) and Joyce Roldan (CCAS-U) were chosen for the position.

SA handles second staff resignation

Student Association executive chief of staff Mary Mai resigned Oct. 11 citing health reasons and a growing frustration with the direction of the SA.

“I have been disgusted by the amount of red tape and politics that has been going on this year,” Mai said last week. “The executive is doing a great job and has been all year, but some students in the SA have seemed to lost their reason to serve and now they’re out there just for political gains.”

SA President Omar Woodard is not required to fill the vacant position and said he does not have plans to do so. Chief Administrator Christian Walker currently performs duties similar to Mai’s former responsibilities.

“Mary’s relationship with the Senate was strained and she felt it was best to move on,” Woodard said last week. “I thank her for her dedicated service to me and to the SA.”

-Brandon Butler