Associated Student Government (ASG) student senators debated late into the evening Tuesday as they prepared for the upcoming year by holding a second round of internal elections for the 2008-09 executive cabinet.
ASG selected junior Thad Boggs as ASG's secretary for off-campus affairs and first-year Una Hrnjak as secretary for diversity affairs. The organization also unanimously approved sophomore Bethany Bowyer as secretary for academic affairs and current Residence Hall Association (RHA) programming director Matt Forest as secretary for on-campus affairs.
In the traditional process of cabinet elections, each of the candidates presented a brief platform before fielding questions from the senate.
As next year's secretary for off-campus affairs, Boggs sees his position as a liaison between the Oxford community and Miami students.
"Overall, it's important to have this relationship between Miami students, Miami University and Oxford be a symbiotic one," Boggs said. "Enhancing that culture of cooperation and respect for one another and one another's concerns should be the overarching theme of the committee."
Boggs said his highest priority will be getting "beer pong table violations" demoted from the current fourth degree misdemeanor charge, while also planning to focus on improving voter registration among Miami students and setting up a database to assist students searching for roommates to share off-campus housing.
Jen House, who has served as secretary for off-campus affairs for the past two years, said Boggs is highly capable but warns that he will need to work more quickly than she did, as Boggs can only be in the position a year before he graduates.
"I am very happy that Thad is taking over my position," House said. "He is more experienced in working with local politicians and I think that will help him (acclimate) quickly."
ASG selected Hrnjak for secretary of diversity affairs from a competitive field of five candidates. Hrnjak, who was born in Bosnia and lived in Germany before moving to the United States, said she hopes to see a shift in attitudes toward diversity at Miami.
"Everyone says there's a lack of diversity at Miami," Hrnjak said. "Our generation has the power to change that, beginning next year."
According to Hrnjak, stressing less popular study abroad opportunities and coordinating the various student organizations devoted to matters of diversity will be her top priorities.
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"Lux is a fabulous program, but I would really like to shine a light on the Miami China program and others like it," Hrnjak said. "I also think the key is bringing together the more than 50 groups involved in diversity to combine multiple events into one big event."
Bowyer, the current secretary for academic affairs, ran unopposed for the position and will continue for a second year. Over the course of the next school year, Bowyer plans to improve academic advising, funding for study abroad programs and online services for students.
Forrest was selected as president of RHA at the RHA general assembly meeting March 31, and approved by ASG at the Tuesday meeting. The RHA president position doubles as secretary for on-campus affairs.
Forrest said he sees himself serving as a liaison between RHA and ASG.
"I plan to work with the office of residence life and resident directors to incorporate more communication between on-campus students and res-life," Forrest said. "I also want to provide a stronger connection between RHA and ASG in terms of working with on-campus senators."
ASG also held elections for three other positions in the executive cabinet at its meeting April 1.
Senate chose junior Jeff Puthoff as next year's secretary of public relations, former president pro tempore Doug Haynes as president of the senate and sophomore Andrew Ferguson as treasurer.
The secretary of public relations position takes the place of ASG's former communications director and will work in conjunction with a yet-to-be-appointed technical director to improve ASG's communication with the student body and Oxford community.
The race for the new position was the most competitive of the night with five candidates. Several issues were brought up during questioning, including making ASG more visible to the student body and community, improving publicity for ASG elections and modifying ASG's Web site.
"The first thing is, we need to revamp the perception that the student body has of student government," Puthoff said. "We need to start from the bottom up."
Puthoff suggested scrapping the current Web site to create a more user-friendly version, designing a more recognizable logo and changing the name of ASG to simply student government to sound more approachable.
In the past, table tents, those familiar folded advertisements on the tables at Bell Tower and other dining halls, have become the sole focus of the communications committee. Puthoff hopes to avoid falling into that trap.
"I think we need to steer clear of just folding table tents," Puthoff said. "We need to brainstorm ideas on how to get our points across to the student body."
As next year's president of the senate, Haynes said he hopes to improve senator training methods at the beginning of next school year and make the formal processes of senate easier for alternate senators to understand their responsibilities at a meeting.
The responsibilities of the president of the senate include presiding over senate meetings, training new senators and voting in the event of a tie.
"We need to increase the training given to senators and make it so senators aren't afraid to talk or know what to do," Haynes said.
ASG's treasurer is vested with the power to direct all financial matters including preparing budgets and auditing student organizations.
Treasurer-elect Ferguson hopes to audit at least one student organization per week to ensure the money given is being spent appropriately.
"We have not had a lot of audits this year, and that's something I really want to increase," Ferguson said. "I think we should be responsible with how we spend other people's money."
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