Slippery Rock’s Student Government Association selected a new parliamentarian and speaker of the senate Monday night, completing the 2015-2016 executive board.
Former freshman senator Rachel Lawler was appointed parliamentarian by SGA President Logan Steigerwalt and was unanimously confirmed by the senate.
“The parliamentarian’s job is to keep me in check and make sure we’re following the constitution and Robert’s Rules,” Steigerwalt said. “I believe Rachel is the best choice.”
Following Lawler’s appointment, commuter senator Sarah Arpino was elected speaker of the senate.
After three rounds of voting, Vice President of Finance Michael Farah created a tie between candidates Arpino and commuter senator Jaclyn Choma, which, by SGA constitution, gave the final decision to President Steigerwalt.
“I voted for Jaclyn because, as an executive board member, I don’t believe I should be deciding who is leading the senate,” Farah said.
Earlier in the evening, Farah announced plans for the consolidation of SGA’s finance policy, which, among other things, allows SGA to give conference grants to clubs and organizations that apply for them, into a single document.
Vice President of Student Affairs Jessica Johnson announced plans for a “campus crawl” on October 20 to address lighting concerns along campus walkways, particularly in the direction of The Grove apartment complex, she said.
“We want to make sure there’s adequate lighting and that students are safe walking where they need to go,” she said.
In addition to the night’s elections, communication professor Dr. Pease-Hernandez was unanimously selected to be SGA’s new faculty adviser.
“I’m going to push you out of your comfort zones to get things done,” Pease-Hernandez said.
President Steigerwalt reiterated his plans for a campus leadership conference, a student-run computer repair service and the use of the student life survey to improve campus.
Steigerwalt said the first formal meeting of the semester went well.
“The turnout was great and many of the audience members were senate applicants,” he said. “We’ll be voting them in on September 14.”
The next SGA meeting will take place on Monday, Sept. 14 at 8:45 p.m. in the Smith Student Center Theater.
This article was revised on September 4 at 1:26 p.m. to correct an error regarding SGA’s finance policy.
