Dianna Rupp / Sun Star
Present: Benjamin Anderson-Agimuk, Clay Allen, Erik Rickards, Cordero Reid, Jonathan Quinones, Kayleen Hansen, Mickey Zakurdaew, Sabrina Martin and Allyssia Garcia.
ASUAF meets regularly to discuss the welfare of students on and off campus.
Absent: Sydney Rosenbalm and Chris Hoch.
ASUAF called its first meeting of the semester to session this Sunday at 4:01 p.m.. President Mathew Carrick and Vice President Colby Freel began the meeting by welcoming all returning and new senators, as well as a variety of guest speakers and hopeful board elects for the session.
As the senate’s first order of business for the new school year, senator Jonathan Quinones was elected as the new senate chair with a vote of 7-1 against Cordero Reid. Chair Quinones presided over the remainder of the meeting.
The senate chose to unanimously accept the new rules and procedures, which will set the format for the remainder of the years sessions. The senate later voted to suspend them with a vote of 6-0-1 for the remainder of meeting so that senate elect Sabrina Martin could be confirmed fully to senate, thus allowing her to be considered for chair of the executive committee, which she went on to win with a unanimous vote. After electing Senator Martin, the senate went on to elect Senator Cordero Reid as the chair of the Internal affairs committee and Senator Allyssia Garcia as chair of the Public Relations committee, as well as re-elect Senator Erik Rickards as the chair of the Student Affairs committee.
After committee appointments, guests were allowed to introduce themselves and speak to the senate. Daniel Nero, a hopeful concert board candidate, spoke. Josh Hovis, student involvement coordinator, spoke to the senate about the importance of bill SB 185-001, which, if passed, will reform the way the club council is operated.
Once guests had finished speaking, the senate moved on to the consideration of appointments to the RISE, Elections, Publications and Concert boards. Brandon Elkins and Rocco Haro were appointed to the RISE Board with votes of 7-1-0 and 6-1-1, respectively. Daniel Nero was elected to the Concert Board after winning over opponent Taylor Morgan with a vote of six over Morgan’s two.
After discussion, appointments for Publications and Elections boards were postponed, with the Publication Board being tabled until next week and the Elections Board being pushed out for two additional meetings.
Though most committee officers were unable to give reports due to it being the first meeting of the semester, President Carrick claimed 32 hours over the summer, which were primarily spent on working with the student fees committee, the hiring committee for the new dean of students and assisting in the search for the new chancellor of UAF.
Vice President Freel went on to claim 135 hours over the summer that were spent running summer senate, working with the club council and representing ASUAF at a variety of student events.
The final officer to report was public relations director Hannah Witherington, who claimed 7 hours over the last week, most of which were spent updating ASUAF’s website and connecting with students at the Wood Center’s late nighter event on Friday, Sept. 4.
The first senate bill of the session, SB 185-001, was moved to the internal affairs committee by Chair Quinones, allowing the senate to move into final confirmations for the evening. Senator elect Ryan Cain, Concert Board elects Hannah Witherington and Daniel Nero and RISE Board-elects Brandon Elkins and Rocco Haro were all confirmed to their respective positions. Senators Sabrina Martin, Clay Allen and Brandon Anderson-Agimuk, as well as Vice President Colby Freel were all sworn in by Chair Quinones.
As a last point of business, the senate unanimously approved the Election board’s changes to the Election manual and adjourned the meeting at 5:39 p.m.