by Jacob Solis

APPOINTMENTS

Two new senators appointed for the College of Engineering and Division of Health Sciences

The senate is back at max capacity for the first time since the end of September, when three of the 22 sitting senators resigned. Sam Bruketta of the College of Engineering and Elizabeth Pearson of the Division of Health Sciences were each appointed to fill the last two open seats.

The race for the open engineering seat, left by former Sen. Anthony Ramirez, was a heated one. Six applicants were considered for the job, though only five showed up for the actual nomination process.

The whole process ended up taking nearly an hour as each candidate was given 3 minutes to present and 5 minutes to be grilled by the senate proper. The questions included everything from how the candidates planned on accomplishing certain legislative goals to how well each candidate knew the Statutes of the Associated Students (ASUN’s big book of rules and legislation).

Bruketta received nine of 15 votes, giving him the ultimate victory. Four senators abstained and one was absent.

Elizabeth Pearson was the one and only candidate who applied for the open DHS seat. Nonetheless, sitting senators were pleased with her presentation, experience and commitment.

The two senators will sit for their first full senate meeting this Wednesday.

LEGISLATION

Senate rolls through a packed agenda, passes 7 bills

The Senate of the Associated Students put its stamp of approval on seven separate bills last Wednesday during an unusually hefty 2-hour-long meeting.

Two of the bills were passed quickly and painlessly by consent agenda, meaning the senate took a quick, audible tally of yeas and nays to decide the fate of the bills. If every senator says yea, then the bill passes. One of these bills stated that the speaker of the senate was no longer responsible for monitoring the quality of paper that legislation is printed on. It was a duty not performed by the speaker in quite some time.

Other passed bills included an official name change of the food pantry from “ASUN-GSA Food Pantry” to simply “ASUN Food Pantry,” the official creation of the Sustainable Nevada Initiative Fund, a small expansion of the Pack Internship Grant Program and $12,600 in funding for new civic engagement software that ASUN will be putting out sometime in the near future.

It should also be noted that the software appropriations bill was the latest bill to come from the desk of ASUN President Caden Fabbi, who’s dictated most of this session’s budgetary changes to Budget and Finance Chair Sen. Sebastien Atienza.

Jacob Solis can be reached at jsolis@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @TheSagebrush.