Michael Dowd, senior in animal science and global food systems leadership, and Cameron Koger, junior in marketing and student finance director, officially began their terms student body president and vice president, respectively, during Thursday’s student senate meeting. Members of the student senate also took oaths of office.
Student senate also approved Maggie Billman, sophomore in secondary education, as SGA Chief of Staff. Billman, as the current speaker pro-tempore of the student senate, will uniquely hold both positions until a new speaker pro-tempore is voted on and elected next week.
The student senate also nominated and voted Blake Phillips, sophomore in management information systems, as speaker of the student senate.
Phillips said not enough students are involved or aware of the work SGA does, and he’d like to change that.
“I plan to start combatting this by personally writing a meeting update for the K-State Today after every student senate meeting,” Phillips said, “I believe this will make the important work that happens in this body more accessible to the student body.”
Phillips said he will draw upon his prior leadership experiences, along with his connections with leaders on campus, to provide a smooth transition of power. He said he would also like to work on organization and inclusiveness in the student senate.
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Student senators pass legislation as term comes to end
“Well Blake Phillips may not be from where you are from, you better believe he’s gonna conduct this senate the way it should be, whether you’re from Johnson County, southwest Kansas, central Kansas, an out-of-state student, a non-traditional student, an international student,” Josh Diazdeleon, junior in elementary education, said. “You deserve a seat at the table … just know that Blake Phillips is prepared to serve you.”
Phillips ran against Andrew Booze, senior in computer science, who said he looks forward to working with Phillips to help students.
“I’m glad to work with our new speaker on things we’re mutually passionate about, such as … voting and educational platforms or fees and that sort of thing,” Booze said.
After taking office, the student senators passed their first resolutions of the 2021-2022 term.
One of the resolutions commended the University of Southern California for eliminating KU from the NCAA tournament, passing with a hearty, “Fight on! Go Trojans!” from the members of the student governing association and guests present.
“I think it is very important to start the new term and to establish that we are a body of students, and that anything that you deem important, you have the right to write legislation for,” Koger said. “I want to make a culture that in SGA you can make whatever resolution you want, and that’s the spirit of this bill.”
SGA also approved a commendation to the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative and the KSU Foundation for their work in raising funds to lessen the cost of textbooks for students at Kansas State
Student senate will reconvene next Thursday, April 15, at 7 p.m. Members of SGA can meet in Room 1088 of the Business Building, while others can join via Zoom.
