Riaz Rao appointed Union Annual Report chairperson, Executive Board liaison

The Student Senate appointed Riaz Rao ’22 as both Senate-Executive Board liaison and Union Annual Report chairperson, as both positions were vacant, on October 26. According to the Senate bylaws, the UAR Committee "shall be chaired by the Senate-Executive Board Liaison." The E-Board liaison is in charge of giving the Senate a recount of what happened during the latest E-Board meeting. The Union Annual Report Committee is a joint committee between the Senate and Executive Board that creates the Union Annual Report, a document which details the Union’s annual budget. Rao was already on both Senate and E-Board as the parliamentarian—someone who tells members when they can speak during a meeting. The parliamentarian does not have a voting role, but the UAR chairperson votes solely on the E-Board.

Grand Marshal Cait Bennett ’22 suggested that Rao take on this role. For the past few weeks, Rao has already been giving an E-Board summary to the Senate in place of the E-Board liaison, since Rao already attended every E-Board meeting.

Many of the members agreed that Rao is a fair-minded person and was suited for the position. There was a short discussion about whether or not someone can—or should—hold both a non-voting position and a voting position. To resolve any possible problems, Rao no longer serves as E-Board parliamentarian. This way, Rao votes on E-Board and only holds a voting position on E-Board—UAR chairperson and Senate-Executive Board liaison—and does not vote on the Senate with these positions.

The vote passed in the senate 17-4-1.