OK, the title is a bit deceptive — I wasn’t actually in Senate on April 4. But here’s what went down.
The Sunday preceeding was a fun time to sit on R&A. In addition to the open Senate seat in District B, there were many open committee seats. We had the pleasure of interviewing each applicant and making our recommendations.
After 12 hours of interviews and deliberation split between Friday and Sunday night, the committee made the following recommendations (with my votes):
District B
- Kevin Reilly — No. Kevin was a great Senator, but another applicant, Gordon Owen, also was a former Senator and has the experience of living both on- and off-campus in District B. Since 4 of the 5 current District B Senators live on Fraternity Row, I thought the district as a whole would be better served by Gordon, who I felt would be more familiar with the issues of off-campus students.
Allocations
- Rene Carballo (District C)
- Kevin Reilly (District B)
(Since both Rene and Kevin served on Allocations in the “immediate past era,” according to Rules & Procedures, they receive preference in their applications. A motion was made to approve as a bloc, and I voted yes.)
Budget
- Steven Kelly (Accounting) — Yes
- Lacey Logsdon (District C) — Yes
- Dipesh Patel (Business) — Yes
(I thought there were four strong applicants for Budget: the above three, and Justin Bell. These three received the recommendation of the committee chair, and although I’d like to see Justin on Budget, I didn’t want to vote against any of them, as they were all strong applicants in their own right.)
Judiciary
- Christine Bainer (Journalism)
- Justin Bell (District D)
- Luis Delgado (Law)
- Sharon Fieldman (Sophomore)
- Lindsey Johns (Tolbert)
(Because there were so many interviews and the interview period was so long, I missed some interviews on Friday afternoon due to classes. The committee adopted rules that those present for interviews for a committee could vote for that committee. All of the interviews for Judiciary were on Friday, so I missed many of them and could not vote. However, I participated in deliberations as much as possible and was satisfied with the committee’s recommendations.)
Rules & Ethics
- Sarah Badawi (Liberal Arts & Sciences) — Yes
- Barbara Cineas (Agriculture) — No. Although Senator Cineas also served on R&E during the “immediate past era,” I felt it would be inappropriate to recommend her to sit on R&E again. Her previous term in Senate ended when, as a Liberal Arts & Sciences Senator, she changed her major to a major within Agriculture. This made her ineligible to sit as a Senator from Liberal Arts, but she did not immediately resign her seat. When I asked her about it during her interview, she said she did not know about the rule. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a minor mistake to make, and I certainly don’t hold it against it her personally, but I did not think it would appropriate to recommend her to sit on the Rules & Ethics committee again.
- Elan Miller (Sophomore) — No. Although Senator Miller gave a confident interview, I did not feel he distinguished himself as an applicant for R&E. I said I would be glad to interview him again and consider recommending him at that time, but I felt I did not have enough information from his application and interview to recommend him for this committee.
Info. & Communications
- Ben Grove (Hume) — Yes
- Jennifer Gurland (Freshman) — Yes
- Jodi Schneider (Freshman) — Yes
- Michael Zhao (Graduate) — Yes
The committee’s recommendations, when sent to the Senate floor on Tuesday, were approved as a bloc.
I was not in Senate because I had a prior engagement with a constituent — my girlfriend. We saw the Garrison Keillor show at the Phillips Center, and it was a lot of fun. We got out of the show right around the time that Senate ended. Gainesville Sun article on the performance
A final note on April 4 Senate is that Dr. Marc Hoit, UF CIO, spoke to the Senate on the restructuring of university IT services. I really appreciate the steps he has taken to let students know about the process.