ASUO Senate again postponed Xavier Aranda’s confirmation to Senate Seat 14 at Wednesday’s meeting.
Aranda’s highly debated confirmation was postponed at last week’s Senate meeting after a dispute over his academic qualification.
Aranda was not present at Wednesday’s meeting, and Senate decided not to hold a vote on Aranda’s confirmation in his absence.
ASUO Vice President Getachew Kassa stated Aranda must have had some sort of emergency that prevented him from attending the meeting.
Senate voted down executive recommendation’s for elections coordinator, Ian Rocker, and appointed two members to the elections board at last night’s senate meeting.
Sen. Hailey Sheldon provided insight into Rocker’s qualifications, having spent time working with him on the University Forensics Debate and Speech team.
“I didn’t notice the leadership quality in you,” she told Rocker.
Sen. Nick Schultz abstained from all elections committee confirmations, saying he was not comfortable with the body’s affiliation with the executive.
Also confirmed was third-year law student Ben Fisher to Senate Seat 17, which represents graduate students and law students. Sen. Sandy Weintraub addressed the Senate before voting about potentially having two law students, Fisher and himself, representing two seats which also represent graduate students.
“Basically, we tried and tried to find a graduate student for this position. It just didn’t happen,” he said. “In lieu of that, I will do my best to reach out to other graduate departments so that everyone has representation. Because of the immediacy of needing someone in the position, I think that Ben’s qualifications give him the experience for the job.”
Fisher’s experience at other universities’ student governing bodies gave him a resounding approval with a 14-0-1 vote.
Approved elections board members include Lauren Short, Max Sugarman and Tomas Webster.
[email protected]