The Associated Student Government held its in-house elections Wednesday, selecting a speaker of the Senate and a parliamentarian, leaving the positions of clerk and treasurer open, since no one accepted nominations for the jobs.
Weinberg sophomore Tyris Jones was elected to replace Weinberg senior Samir Pendse as speaker of the Senate. Wilson Funkhouser, a Weinberg sophomore, was elected to replace SESP senior Grace Adamson as parliamentarian. The two will hold these positions for one year.
For in-Senate elections, candidates are nominated for positions during the meeting. After nominations, each candidate gives a speech about their qualifications and answers questions from the rest of the senators. A vote follows.
Pendse said the speaker is responsible for running Senate meetings and offering senators and caucus leaders “feedback and guidance,” as well as sending Senate listserv e-mails and writing the meeting agendas.
Jones said he has previously served on the ASG Rules Committee and as a senator for For Members Only. He said he thought the position of speaker of the Senate was the best way for him to serve the Northwestern community. As speaker, he said he will be passionate about aiding the development of old and new ASG senators.
The parliamentarian serves as the head of the Rules Committee, takes roll in Senate meetings and holds senators accountable for attendance, among other duties. During the discussion period, many of the senators said Funkhouser was qualified for this position because of his previous experience on the Rules Committee and his knowledge and enthusiasm for the rules.
After the election of Jones and Funkhouser, several senators were nominated for the positions of clerk and treasurer, but all “respectfully declined.” Senators voted to table the elections for these positions until next week.
Students for Ecological and Environmental Development Senator and Weinberg senior Julia Brook said because previous experience as a senator is not required to run, senators should talk to their friends next week to find out if anyone outside of ASG is interested in running.
Also during the Senate meeting, a funding task force, consisting of a combination of ASG members and student-group leaders, presented some recommendations to the Senate about how to improve the funding cycle.
ASG Vice President Tommy Smithburg also introduced legislation to improve ASG services by either adding a new Executive Board position for a services vice president or by improving the existing structure, in which the director of each ASG service reports to an assigned existing Executive Board member.
“We must improve our services to the point that they are flawless,” Smithburg said.
ASG will vote on the legislation next week. [email protected]
