Tuesday night’s UF Student Senate meeting was the last for some and the first for many.
In the first half of the Senate’s double-header meeting, senators said their goodbyes, thanked their peers and gave advice.
“Don’t be a Tuesday night senator,” said Sen. Bradley Bean, who encouraged new senators to leave their mark and get involved in committees in the Senate.
Sen. Michael Christ, the outgoing and last Students Party senator, advised the new generation of senators to speak their minds.
“Your time in here is very, very short,” he said. “Remember why you came here.”
The meeting then moved on to approve the 2014 Student Government election results and address the issue of District E’s Senate seat.
Senators voted to certify the election results presented by UF Supervisor of Elections Hans Rojas. The Elections Commission recommended validation for the vote totals for all seats except District E, Commission Chairman Harold Holder said.
No candidate qualified to campaign as a District E senator, yet 11 write-in votes — a majority — were cast for “Swamp Party.” The seat of District E, Holder said, will not be granted to the Swamp Party because it is not a candidate. According to the SG elections codes, a “write-in candidate” is defined as any person who could have met the qualifications of the office.
Before the first meeting concluded, Christ and Sen. Jason Richards were nominated for the John Michael Stratton Memorial Award, and Senators Davis Bean, Joseph Michaels and Leah Miller were nominated for the Paul Clark Memorial Award for Outstanding Committee Chairperson.
As the old senators filed out of the chambers, new senators were quickly sworn in by Chief Justice Marshall McDonald, followed by nominations for Senate President and Senate President Pro-Tempore.
Michaels was nominated and unanimously voted in as UF Senate President, as was Bean for Senate President Pro-Tempore.
“I’m very thankful for the Senate for entrusting me with leading the Senate body,” Michaels said.
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 10/8/2014]
Members of the new 2014-2015 UF Student Senate are sworn in at Tuesday’s meeting.
