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Senators nominated and voted on candidates for seats on the Executive Budgetary Committee and the Student Organizations Committee on Tuesday at the first meeting of the General Student Senate this semester.
Sens. Hannah Hudson, Ryan Gavin, Nicholas Smalley, Alex Ortiz and Nelson Carson were nominated to fill the two seats left vacant on EBC by former Sens. James Lyons and Peter Christopher. All senators accepted their nominations, and Ortiz and Carson won the election by private ballot.
Sens. Wildes, Benjamin Goodman and Mary Emmi were nominated for SOC. Wildes and Goodman accepted. Emmi declined nomination due to scheduling and Goodman was elected to the seat recently vacated by Sen. Jennifer Dana.
Reports from various senate committees and representative boards were mostly quiet because the semester has just begun, but Sen. Rebecca Dyer – student representative to the University of Maine System’s board of trustees – shared some new information.
According to Dyer, the system’s board of trustees is considering ways to streamline the calendars of the seven campuses in the University of Maine System to better coincide with one another. The senator said the issue of a recent financial analysis of the University of Maine System by accountant Howard Bunsis — commissioned by the student government at the University of Southern Maine — was discussed at the board’s meeting.
Bunsis’ analysis painted a rosy picture of the system’s financial situation, despite the often gloomy perspective given by the system office. Bunsis wrote that the system office has amassed large reserves over the last five years — termed “unallocated funds”— and that its net assets grew by $11 million last year.
Dyer said the trustees disputed those claims, but that Bunsis’s report is still indicitive of a problem, even if it’s wrong.
“If an accountant can look at the finances and be confused, how can students be expected to look at it and understand?” Dyer said.
The position of vice president of student entertainment is still vacant after senate denied outgoing President Owen McCarthy’s nomination of Abtin Mehdizadegan. Sen. Joseph Nabozny, who was assistant VPSE under Mehdizadegan, is currently acting VPSE until Harris selects a nominee from a pool of applicants sometime next week.
The senate voted unanimously to allocate $1,200 to Alpha Kappa Pi for travel expenses to a conference.
Senate also passed a resolution to create a committee charged with reviewing FEPC guidelines and making recommendations for changes to the General Student Senate.
The resolution has not yet been considered by the Policy and Procedure Committee, as is usually necessary before a vote, but Wildes put forward a motion to suspend the rules and vote anyway. Gavin seconded Wildes’ motion due to the “time sensitive” nature of the issue. (See page A1 for more details).
Tuesday’s meeting of the General Student Senate was the first session of GSS since President Brian Harris and Vice President Nyssa Gatcombe took office on Dec. 9.
Bangor Daily News