Conflict among Senators puts Executive Board operations in jeopardy

Despite intending to confirm every member of the Executive Board, the Student Senate only made four confirmations in this meeting. This was due to a request for meeting minutes that would be used to more accurately assess each member’s merits. The Senate needs to confirm all additional members by Friday, April 26 or there will be no E-Board this summer.

Before any new confirmations could be made, a motion was made by Graduate Senator Ria Massoni ’24 to table every confirmation until meeting minutes for the E-Board’s past year of operation were made available. President of the Union Cat Philipps ’24 objected strongly to this motion, informing the Senate that these confirmations were necessary to maintain quorum for the E-Board and allow them to carry out crucial end of year operations. After a lengthy discussion, the motion was amended so that all new confirmations who had been previous members of the E-Board or any committees would be postponed indefinitely until transcripts of meetings could be reviewed by voting members of the Senate. The motion passed 9-5-0.

Four new members were approved to be on the E-Board. Jesse Kim ’26 was confirmed as a member at large by unanimous vote, Heman Siddarth Kolla ’26 was confirmed as the Club Organization Representative unanimously, Gabriel Jacoby-Cooper ’24 was confirmed as the interim Senate liaison for the Union unanimously, and Jacob Steingart ’24 was confirmed as a member at large unanimously. With these appointments, the size of the E-Board is sixteen members, meaning that they still have the ability to operate until the rest of its members can be confirmed by the Senate.

A motion was also put forward to acknowledge Director of Student Activities Cameron McLean, who is retiring after thirty one years of service to the RPI community. The motion included both a formal thank you to McLean as well as the possibility of a more permanent installation on campus in dedication to her career. The motion was approved unanimously.

Due to the delays in member approval, the Senate met on Sunday, April 21 at 5 pm to approve additional members. Additional E-Board members are expected to be confirmed during their normal meeting on Monday, April 22 at 8 pm. The Senate will meet for a third time on April 23 at 8 pm to continue approving E-Board members.

This Senate Meeting was held on April 15. The Senate meets every Monday at 8 pm in the Shelnutt Gallery.