Matthew Miyamoto was elected to become ASUO Senate president Wednesday night by a vote of 12-5. Miyamoto ran against Sen. Lindy Mabuya and was voted through with the support of the senate body.
Both senators addressed two important issues including bipartisanship and the senate environment.
Miyamoto reenforced the idea that a senate president should not bring partisanship into the weekly meetings.
“I personally am not going to be involved in student elections. I want to increase bipartisanship,” Miyamoto said.
Mabuya took a different stance, saying she would never let her personal opinion sway the body’s vote, but would express her opinion if she felt it was important enough or if it would better define an issue.
“That is the job of the senate president: to give information and support the decision of the body,” Mabuya said.
The senators also took different stances about the senate’s environment.
Mabuya was concerned about the interaction between programs and senate members during special requests.
“I am constantly concerned about the environment that programs are about to walk into,” Mabuya said.
Miyamoto was more concerned about the amount of disrespectful comments he heard last year’s senate members make toward each other.
“I sat in all of the meetings last year and some of the things that were said disgusted me,” Miyamoto said. “I want to have a body that despite our different cultures, backgrounds or political views I would like to have a respectful environment.”
Some senators were not convinced Miyamoto had enough experience to do the job, and suggested letting Miyamoto sit on senate before becoming the senate president.
Senator Lamar Wise was not convinced that Miyamoto wasn’t qualified.
“Folks, he went to those meetings to prepare to be the best senator here. That’s a year’s preparation of not even being on the body to prepare for this,” Wise said.
Other elections took place Wednesday night with the ASUO vice president being filled by Sen. Jeremy Hedlund, ombudsperson being filled by ASUO Sen. Ben Rudin, treasure being filled by ASUO Sen. Taylor Allison and the academic chair being filled by Will Steiner.