At its second meeting for the year, the Student Senate’s agenda was focused on various appointments to the Executive Board and Senate committees.
At the Senate’s final meeting last semester, the Senate refused to confirm students for two of the E-Board positions. The E-Board was left without a Senate-Executive Board Liaison or a representative for the Class of 2010 over the summer.
At the meeting, President of the Union Erik Swanson ’08 hoped to have the Senate confirm those recommended for these two positions. Once again, Amy Moise ’09 was nominated for the position of Senate-Executive Board Liaison. The position is first recommended by the Grand Marshal, and then confirmed by the Senate. Moise had been recommended by Grand Marshal Julia Leusner ’08 last semester, but the Senate had not confirmed her appointment. This year, the Senate seemed more confident in Moise, and appointed her in a 15-0-1 vote.
The second appointment to be confirmed was for the position of Class of 2010 representative. Alex Franz ’10 was nominated for this position last year, but could not attend the Senate’s final meeting due to an away tennis match. The Senate motion to confirm Franz failed last semester, and the E-Board again recommended him for the position this year. This time, the Senate passed a motion to confirm Franz’s appointment, also in a 15-0-1 vote.
In addition to E-Board appointments, the Senate also had some vacancies for chairs of various committees that needed to be filled at the meeting. The first addressed was the Academic Affairs Committee.
This committee was left without a chair after the previous chair Lin Yang ’10 transferred, and therefore graduate student Christina Laskowski and Patricia Leusner ’10 were nominated to co-chair the committee. Laskowski has been on the Academic Affairs Committee for the past two years and would focus mostly on the teaching assistant issue if appointed co-chair. Patricia Leusner has only served on the committee since being elected to the Senate during the 2007 GM Week elections. Her primary plan is to pursue initiating an honor code and peer mentoring at RPI.
Both were confirmed as co-chairs for the committee by the Senate.
“Both new co-chairs bring a unique perspective to the academic facet of student life,” Julia Leusner said. “Christina Laskowski is a graduate student who has attended other schools, while Patricia Leusner is an undergraduate student who has just finished her freshman year and is in the perfect position to address the issues facing first-year students.”
Teddy Tablante ’10 was nominated for the position of co-chair of the Committee on Student Life. Tablante hopes to focus primarily on video game tournaments in Super Smash Bros. Melee and other video games, as well as organizing the placement of a second mural in the Union, among other projects. Tablante’s appointment was confirmed by the Senate, and he will be serving as co-chair with Chase Miller ’10. The co-chairs will also be working on “GoCrossCampus,” a large-scale game of “Risk.”
Julia Leusner said, “He not only has several good ideas he would like to pursue, but unparalleled dedication to make them happen.”
