Senate welcomes six new members

Six senators were sworn into the Student Association Senate and one senator left the legislative branch during a special session Tuesday night in the Marvin Center.

The special session took place because not enough members were present to meet quorum at last week’s meeting.

SA Executive Vice President Josh Lasky, a senior, announced the resignation of Medical School Senator Mohammed Ali. In a statement Lasky read, Ali said that his resignation was because of “personal reasons.” He has served as a senator for the last three years.

The Senate also confirmed Chloe Lew, Nina Pedra and Shannon E. Johnson as freshman non-voting senators. The Rules Committee recommended nine applicants for the position.

The SA also approved three graduate school senators. Kartik Bulusu was confirmed as the voting graduate student from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Emmanuel Caudillo (CCAS) and Min Kim (GSEHD) were named non-voting first year graduate students.

The freshman and graduate non-voting senators are given all the rights of a full Senator except a vote. After being approved, all newly confirmed senators were sworn in as official members of the Senate.

“I am very excited about the freshman senators,” said Lasky, who was a freshman non-voting senator. “They have so much potential,” he said.

Lew said that her first objective is to address the issues regarding handicap accessibility in residence halls, which she said has adversely affected a disabled friend of hers.

“I am very open to ideas and meeting new people,” Lew added.

Johnson said getting to know the freshman body is her primary objective.

“I would like to get know freshmen,” Johnson said. “I want to be a voice for the freshmen class.”

The Senate will meet again Tuesday to vote on funding for student organizations.