The SGA Senate’s meeting Thursday night was one without legislation and was instead a meeting focused on elections and confirmations. 

Executive Vice President Casey Nelson conducted the meeting until a new speaker of the senate was elected. She began the meeting with a brief introduction and moved to speeches from Senators Mike Smith and Molly Stalter. The senators were candidates for secretary of the senate and each spoke briefly on their qualifications for the position.

After brief speeches from both, Stalter was elected secretary of the senate.

Senate then heard from Senators Robert Pendley and Matthew Childress, the two candidates for speaker of the senate. 

During his speech, Pendley, a law student at the University, discussed his seven years of experience with SGA. Pendley said he would like to incorporate clickers into the senate voting process as a way of expediting the process. He also said he would like to expand the Senate’s page program that allows senators to have a student whose work is similar to a congressional aide. 

Senator Childress, a sophomore majoring in management information systems and finance, spoke about his previous experience as a Senator and said he wishes to help senators with their legislative and non-legislative goals.

After being elected speaker, Childress said he plans to act as a “liaison” with the Hunter administration and plans to work on expanding the Financial Affairs Committee’s funding. 

“That’s kind of the main thing I want to work on,” he said. “Legislatively, we can set that agenda but I feel like for now the FAC funding is something we should really look into because, you know, the more student groups that have funding the better.”

Additionally, Caitlin Cobb was confirmed as SGA President Jared Hunter’s chief of staff. Cobb previously served as Hunter’s campaign manager.