New committee chairs and executive board positions were elected and sworn into office during the University of Rhode Island’s Student Senate meeting on April 10.
The position of the Cultural Affairs Committee chair was the only chair position that was run with any opposition. Senator Lulu Alryati was elected to be chair of Cultural Affairs Committee after a series of questions for herself and the other nominee, Senator Madison Ramsay.
“One must feel connection to this campus and to its constituents to be effective, and I can confidently say my number one passion as a student here at URI and as a human being in this country is to fully commit myself to cultural affairs and its goals,” said Alryati.
Interim Student Organizations Committee Chair Austyn Ramsay was elected to be SOC chair. “SOC is gonna be a little bit of a challenge but I have great people working with me,” said Ramsay.
Senator Thomas McGrath was elected to be chair Academic Affairs Committee after a nomination by the former Academic Affairs Committee Chair, John Morabito.
McGrath described some goals he had as Academic Affairs Committee chair for the upcoming term, which included getting the provost to come at least once a semester to general Senate meetings.
Senator Allison Lantagne was elected to be chair of External Affairs Committee. Lantagne said that she has worked in government based internships and would feel confident speaking to community leaders. Lantagne also said that she had been in contact with former External Affairs Committee Chair Sara Straube to know what was happening within the committee during this semester.
“Allison [Lantange] is the perfect person for this,” said Straube.
Campus Affairs Committee Chair Gage Blanchflower was re-elected to the position after a nomination by Senator Nick Colicci.
“He has a passion for campus affairs, he wants to make the lives of people on campus better,” said Colicci.
President Nick Marotta nominated all of his executive board members for the positions of director of operations, director of information, director of treasury and director of communications.
Interim Director of Operations Kaylee Goyette was elected to the position, Morabito was elected to be director of information, Senator Joseph Lachance was elected to be director of treasury, and Senator Leila Cox was elected to be director of communications.
Senator John Bagley was elected to be chair of the Instruments Committee after a nomination by Senator Ryan Menard. Bagley was not present for the meeting, but Senators were quick to talk about Bagley’s role as a Senator.
“John [Bagley] is an absolute superpower on the Senate,” said Lachance.
A bill calling for a $1,223 programming contingency grant approval for the Student Veterans Organization was approved. Senator Zack Nardone, a member of the organization, said that this grant would help with their food truck event to help other veterans on campus connect to the organization.
Interim Moderator Ryan McWeeney was elected to be the moderator of Senate after a nomination by Menard.
“He’s one of the best senators we have,” said Menard.
Senator Mitchell Asante, former Director of Communications Nicolette St. Amand, Blanchflower, Morabito and Ramsay were all nominated and elected to be on the panel to elect the jurists of the court as described in the Senate’s new constitution.