As the semester winds down, students begin to wonder who will lead UMass Boston into the coming fall. Fortunately that question was put to rest this past Wednesday, when the Student Senate convened to elect next years officers.
The current Student Senate, along with the newly elected Senate members, voted on May 2 to choose the six Senate officers for the upcoming ’07-’08 school year. The elections were held in order to fill the six vacant spots for Student Senate president, vice president, Budget and Finance chair, Student Events and Organizations Committee chair, Campus and Community Affairs chair and the Faculty Counsel rep.
Starting in the fall, the Student Senate president will be Juana Matias, who currently serves as Faculty Counsel Rep on the board of officers. Ulisses Varela, who served on Senate this past year, will be vice president. Ali al-Sabbagh, who was elected to Senate this year in a special election, will serve as chairman of B&A. Henry Nsang, who has also served on Senate for the past year, will be head of the CCA. And Michelle Tracchia, just elected this past April, will serve as the Faculty Counsel Rep.
Only one person was elected who did not serve on the Senate last year, Michelle Tracchia, who nominated herself for president and was nominated for all five other positions, finally winning the position of Faculty Council Rep.
The president’s election nearly went uncontested for Matias, who remained the only nominee until current President Michael Metzger made his final call, at which time Tracchia nominated herself while presenting a fully written out agenda regarding campus life and the UMass Boston website. Al-Sabbagh was then nominated for the position by one of his fellow senators.
The most competitive election was for CCA. Six senators ran for CCA position, which was eventually won by Nsang. The least contested spot was for SEOC, which Muna Kangsen won without competition.
Voting occurred following nominations, which could be made by any senator. The nominated senator could then choose to accept or decline the nomination. Metzger would then go through final calls to see if any other senators wished to nominate other senators or themselves.
The elections were held after an arduous two hours of discussing with CPCS students how to better improve their school’s operation, followed by a lengthy debate, mainly between Kudakwashe Mutamba and Terrell Ainooson over how the appropriation of funds should be dealt with in handling both student centers and clubs.
Ainooson, at one time, went so far as to defend the importance of both student clubs and centers on campus by mentioning the case of the Virginia Tech massacre. Ainooson stated that Seung-Hui Cho might not have acted out in the way that he did if he had a sense of community that comes from student clubs and centers.