Grand Marshal Justin Etzine ‘18 opened the Student Senate meeting with committee reports. Those began with Academic Affairs Committee Chairperson Risheel Gabbireddy ’19 who stated that the committee is currently working on the process to appoint a faculty member to the Institute’s tenure committee. The committee will also be discussing upcoming projects that it will work on beginning next semester. Following Gabbireddy, Community Relations Chairperson Michael Gardner ’17 stated that he will be meeting soon with Chris Nolin, Rensselaer’s Director of Community and State Relations to discuss RPI’s relationship with the local community and how the Senate can help improve that relationship.
Rules & Elections Committee Chairperson Caleb Caraway ’19 stated that Greek elections will be this Wednesday from 9 am to 2 pm in the Mueller Center classroom. The Interfraternity Council President Marvin Cosare ’18 was told of the decision, and members of sororities affiliated with the Panhellenic Council are also able to vote in the election. Student Government Communications Committee Chairperson Stefanie Warner ’19 also stated that Senate committee chairs will be working on interacting with the student body through Reddit Ask Me Anything posts. These posts will serve to update the student body on the progress committees are making and gauge opinions on potential new projects that the Senate can work on.
Following committee reports, the Senate moved into voting procedure on the appointment of members of the Executive Board. Appointments began with Joseph Vensuto ’19 who said, “Most of my experience with the Executive Board comes from the Rules & Elections Committee… E-Board is something I’ve always wanted to experience a bit.” Vensuto was appointed 21-0-0. Erica Lane ’18 was appointed to the position of Executive Board Class of 2018 representative 21-0-0. David Raab ’19 was appointed to the position of Executive Board Class of 2019 representative 21-0-0. Anissa Choiniere ’20 was appointed to the position of Executive Board Class of 2020 representative.
Following the appointment of undergraduate representatives to the E-Board, the Senate discussed the appointment of C.J. Markum ’17 to the position of Executive Board Graduate Representative. Markum stated “the big reason I wanted to switch from being a one and a half term senator was since I was chair of the Ad Hoc committee, which was in charge of taking the Save the Union petition and making a factual-based document, un-biased towards what was going on. While working on this report, I kept learning more and more about the Union as I went. I really want to increase communications, which I believe the E-Board needs to take more responsibility with.” “You need to make sure that the minority, the little guy is actually heard.” Markum was appointed 20-1-0.
Following Markum, Rasika Ekhalikar ’18, Ida Etemadi ’19, Kay Sun ’19, Ciera Williams ’18, Majken Rasmussen ’20, Ananya Murali ’20, and Brookelyn Parslow ’20 were appointed unanimously to the position of Executive Board/ICA representative. Caitalin Kennedy ’20 and Caroline Ringel ’20 were appointed unanimously to the position of Executive Board Member at Large, while Jared Segal ’19 and Brian Mansaku ’20 were appointed to the same position 18-3-0 and 16-2-3, respectively.