The SGA Senate swore in three Senators for the College of Social Work, Graduate School and the Culverhouse College of Business while also approving a bill to reapportion Senate seats on Thursday during a special Senate session on Jan. 12 called by SGA President Madeleine Martin. 

The new senators were elected in special elections following the departure of former Senators Justin McCleskey, Sarah Pierce and CJ Pearson.  

Wyatt Harnage, the new senator for the College of Business and Pearson’s replacement, said he plans to promote financial literacy on campus.  

“Not everyone has a chance to take any finance classes or have a good opportunity to get financial literacy,” said Harnage.  

Ragan Hope Wilson, the new senator for the School of Social Work who replaced Pierce, said she aims to advocate for her school and promote transparency and accessibility on campus. Wilson said she wants to work with fellow School of Social Work senator Elizabeth Prophet to achieve this goal.  

Jessica Lopez, who replaced McCleskey for the Graduate School seat said she wants to give graduate students a voice. Many graduate students often feel that their concerns aren’t heard, Lopez said, so she wants to increase communication between colleges and students.  

“My goal is to try to give them pathways for their concerns to be heard … at a college and departmental level,” Lopez said.  

Lopez added that she wants colleges to improve communication with their students through things like regular newsletters.  

In addition to swearing in the new senators, the Senate approved a bill apportioning the Senate seats for the colleges on campus. The apportionments of the 50 seats remained largely unchanged, with the only change being the College of Education gaining a seat and the Graduate School losing one.  

The seat apportionments are based on each school’s enrollment numbers, with each school receiving one seat per roughly 2% of total UA students enrolled.