Student Senate swears in new members

Student Senate welcomes eight new members. The Senate fall election took last place from Monday, Sept. 15, to Tuesday, Sept. 16. The new members were sworn in at the Senate meeting on Sept. 16.

The eight new members of Senate that were elected last week are: Tyler Marson, College of Business and Economics (CBE) Representative; Greg Brown, Non-Traditional Senator; three First Year Representatives, Kao Vang, Israel Umoh and Abby Wendt; and three At-Large Senators, Nathan O’Leary, Mikayla Swanson and Brady Murphy.

Murphy, a freshman, was recently elected as one of the three At-Large Senators, and he has always been interested in government. He said he hopes his involvement in Senate will help improve his leadership and communication skills.

“I look forward to working with a lot of the people in Senate right now and hopefully we can make a lot of differences,” Murphy said.

He also said he hopes to stay involved with Senate all throughout college.

O’Leary, a transfer student, was also elected as one of the At-Large Senators and was involved with student senate at his previous university. O’Leary said he looks forward to learning about the issues at UW-River Falls and hopes to sharpen his leadership skills.

Senate Vice President Shelby Hehr was the elections commissioner this semester.

Hehr said some of the responsibilities of the student senators include attending meetings, serving office hours and serving on a committee. Hehr said the main responsibility is to make our school a better place.

Voting was done online on the FalconSync Student Senate page. Hehr said there were approximately 142 voters. According to the poll results, 33.8 percent of the voters belonged to the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES), 27.5 percent of voters belonged to the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), 17.6 percent of voters belonged to the College of Business and Economics (CBE), 15.5 percent of voters belonged to the College of Education and Professional Studies (CEPS), and 5.6 percent of voters were undecided.

Each person that wanted to run for a position had to fill out an election petition. The election petition is a document that lists each available position for the election, the qualifications and duties for each position, and personal student information such as name, student ID, year in school, email and phone number.

Students running for the first-year position had to collect twenty-five signatures and students running for other positions had to collect fifty signatures.

Hehr said, in order to qualify for the CBE Representative position, the student must be enrolled in CBE. Also, only CBE students were able to vote for candidates who ran for CBE Representative.

According to the election petition, the Non-Traditional Senator candidate must all meet at least one of the following qualifications: be 25 years of age or older, holds full-time employment, has at least one dependent (other than a spouse) or has been outside of formal education for at least one academic year.

Hehr said people who run for the First-Year Representative position must be a first year student at UWRF. According to the election petition, there aren’t any qualifications needed for an At-Large position, any UWRF student is eligible to run.

Senate elections are held every fall and spring semester.