We are proud to announce that the Senate of the Student Government Association has elected its first membership under the new SGA Constitution. The first meeting was held on September 11, 2007, and began with a moment of remembrance led by University Chaplain Mark Shiner. President Rebecca Chopp was a special guest speaker; she expressed her enthusiasm for a successful year and her support of the Senate. We share these sentiments in full and believe that the Senate will completely change the way that students view student government at Colgate.
We are also thrilled to announce that David Kusnetz '09 is the newly elected Speaker of the Senate. The Speaker acts as the primary spokesperson for the diverse interests of the Senate as a whole. Elected at the first meeting each semester, the Speaker presides over Senate meetings, assigns senators to committees, and has the ability to form ad hoc committees to address student concerns as they arise. David is currently enjoying his fourth semester in Senate and his second year on both the Student Affairs Board and the University Student Conduct Board. Additionally, David presided over the Constitutional Revision Committee last year and was instrumental in drafting the new SGA Constitution. We are excited to work with him this year on making Senate as substantive, productive, and efficient as it can be.
There was heated debate during the elections for Speaker of the Senate, a position created by the new SGA Constitution. All three candidates addressed the Senate and fielded questions about their qualifications and vision for this semester. It was invigorating to see the Senate so full of passion and energy. With this spirit and momentum, we are confident that we will be writing of Senate's great successes and initiatives in short order. We are enjoying our positions thus far and look forward to having David and the other 47 members of the Senate working with us to begin a new era of student government that will enable us to improve the Colgate experience in an unprecedented fashion.
