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Union Senate to meet for first time tonight

Despite questions concerning the recent election and several vacant seats, the Senate will convene tonight for its first meeting of the year.

Compared to past years, this year’s senators-elect stand out as one of the stronger and more talented groups, according to Senate Chairman Joel Fajardo.

“I expect this year’s senators to be the most well-informed, intuitive senators the Student Union has seen in years,” said Fajardo in an email. “My first informal meeting with them was testament to [the] intuition and enthusiasm they will be bringing to the Senate chambers this Monday.”

Senator-elect Lauren Traczykowski from South Campus said she feels “the unification of the Union is going to be really strong this year.”

“We will hopefully gain the respect of the students and not just have a unified Union but a unified student body,” she said.

The main focus of the first meeting will be to swear in the senators-elect to their official senator status, according to Union VP of Public Relations Frances Cosico.

According to Cosico, the Senate meeting will also feature several guest speakers, such as former Student Union President Zachary Coseglia, former VP of Public Relations Laurie Steinberg, and Student Activities Office Director Carolyn Norris.

In addition, Union President Ethan Clay plans to present two appointees for the position of co-historian and Carl Woog for the position of VP of student affairs. Woog ran with the “True” slate on an unofficial basis during the spring elections.

The Senate will need to approve Clay’s appointments with a majority vote, making this the Senate’s first official business of the year.

During the meeting, Clay will also address the Senate for the first time as a whole. In his speech, Clay hopes to motivate the senators for a year of positive change.

“I would personally like to inspire the senators to take actions for this campus,” he said.

Like Fajardo, Clay is also impressed by his initial interactions with the newly elected senators.

“This year’s Senate is a very passionate group,” he said. “This Senate has been very impressive already, even before they’ve been sworn in.”

This will be the senators’ first meeting, after they attended a weekend-long retreat in Lake Ossipee, N.H. this past weekend.

According to Fajardo, the retreat was designed to acquaint the senators-elect with the rules and responsibilities their new positions require.

“Our symposium at Lake Ossipee will prove to be an educative and motivating retreat that will detail to the Senators what is expected of them,” Fajardo wrote in an email before the retreat last week.

Clay said he was very impressed by the events of the weekend.

“They’ve really worked hard,” he said. “They are very dedicated to the University, and after seeing what they’ve accomplished this weekend I believe the Senate is in wonderful hands.”

In addition to covering the detailed regulations of the Senate, the retreat also introduced the senators-elect to the goals they plan to focus on this year.

“We will review Robert’s Rules of Order, Senate procedures, and goals that we are developing for this year,” Fajardo wrote.

Although one senator-elect has opted not to become a senator and a complete senate was unable to attend the weekend retreat, their absences will not be detrimental, according to Fajardo. Senators-elect who missed the retreat will be required to meet with Fajardo before tonight’s meeting to be briefed about the information and events they missed.

Despite the empty seats, Cosico said she feels the first meeting will be unaffected.

“This is the most complete Senate that has started off the year in a while,” she said. “It’s a very successful start to the year.”

The Student Union Election Commission is currently interviewing to fill the vacant positions.

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