HSAC, MAL, Representative appointments approved

Appointments for the Hospitality and Services Committee, member-at-large, and representative positions were approved within the Student Senate and Executive Board on Tuesday.

The Senate appointed Abigail Golden ‘24 as Hospitality Services Advisory Committee chairperson. HSAC works to make hospitality services, such as dining services, more pleasant for students. When Golden was asked if she would like to bring back Union late night dining, she answered that she would like to “learn more about it and see who’s fully in charge of it first.”

The motion to appoint Golden passed 17-2-0.

The Senate also appointed Ibrahim Ali ’25 as the Senate treasurer. The treasurer creates the Senate’s budget and works with committee chairs to find the most effective way to spend their money. The Senate’s budget is built by the end of the Fall semester. Grand Marshal Cait Benett ’22 explained that the Treasurer was being appointed now instead of after the budget creation because “the position becomes a lot more laid back. Next year, it will be a full year after they will get to experience building [the Senate’s] budget, and building [the Senate’s] budget is probably the best way to figure out how the Senate budget works.”

The motion to approve the Grand Marshal’s appointment of Ali passed 16-3-0.

There were also appointments for Executive Board Member-At-Large positions. These appointments were made by President of the Union Yaseen Mahmoud ’22. The appointment of Kripa Khanal ’24 passed 17-1-0. The appointment of Spring Fang ’24 passed 18-0-0. The appointment of Amanda Santos ’24 passed 12-4-1.

Ali, appointed as Senate treasurer, was also appointed as the Class of 2025 E-Board Representative. This motion passed 13-4-1.

Outside of appointments, Nick Longchamp shared his appeal towards “rank-choice voting,” where voters are allowed to ‘rank’ candidates, so a losing candidate will give their votes to another candidate the voter chose. “It’s a better system for voting to make sure that the more popular idea wins,” rather than what he fears can happen at present where “candidates with similar ideas split votes and have the candidate with the unpopular idea win.” He said he considers using rank-choice voting for Grand Marshal week, but has to look into it further.