Students elect new senators

Student Senate elections took place on Monday and Tuesday, with positions being filled for college representative for the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), at-large senator and first-year representative. Michael Freedman, Rebecca Piene and Derek Brandt will fill three vacant seats on the Senate.

Student Senate President Joe Eggers said Freedman and Piene both won positions as first-year representatives. Freedman receiving 23 votes edged out Piene, who only accumulated 10 votes.

Dustin Koski was also on the ballot for first-year representative, but with only six votes, he failed to receive enough votes to qualify for the position.

Freedman was also a candidate for the CAS representative position. With 22 votes, Freedman beat out Derek Brandt, who only received five votes. Lisa Stratton and Alex Jones both received one vote as write-in candidates.

Eggers said Freedman will relinquish the position as first-year representative and instead take the role of CAS representative, leaving Peine as first-year senator.

Brandt was also on the ballot as the solo candidate for at-large senator, receiving 79 votes.

Some changes in the ballots this year caused confusion for voters.

“Last year, any student could vote on the first-year representative, which was not exactly fair to first year students,” Senate Vice President Bethany Barnett said. “This year it was set up that only first year students could vote on first-year representatives.”

When upperclassmen signed onto the election site to cast their votes, names appeared that were not supposed to be on this year’s ballot.

“We forgot to remove the question about first-year representative from the all-student ballot,” Barnett said.

Although it was an error, the votes were not miscounted, and those that were cast by upperclassmen for that particular category were not counted.

“It doesn’t matter that they were last year’s names because all students are not allowed to vote for first-year representative anymore,” Barnett said. “All first-year students and only first-year students had access to the correct ballot for first-year representative.”

CAS was the only college for which candidates ran, leaving the College of Education and Professional Studies; the College of Agriculture Food and Environmental Sciences; and the College of Business and Economics without representation in the Senate.

There are two openings for first-year senator remaining, as well as an opening for at-large senator.

If anyone is interested in applying for these positions, contact Eggers or Barnett at joseph.eggers@uwrf.edu or bethany.barnett@uwrf.edu to submit a cover letter and resume.