The U’s student government is working to finalize who will replace five resigning executive cabinet members before Winter Break begins.
It is typical for the Associated Students of the U to lose a few members of its staff this time of year, who either decide to run in the upcoming year’s student-body elections or to devote more time to school.
ASUU must replace Director of Campus Relations Rob Beck, Government Relations Director Taylor Morgan, Diversity Director Ali Hasnain and UCard Coordinator John Poelman because they all will run for office next year, and Academic Affairs Director Elisa Jacobson so she can focus on her senior project.
“It’s our number one priority right now,” said Vice President Bobby Harrington. “We want to get things established so over the break the new directors can be brought up to speed.”
While appointments for replacements are not final, most will probably come from current board members who are already established in the board’s projects.
These new appointees will join other ASUU staff members for a retreat in early January to re-evaluate and assess the progress ASUU has made so far, and where it should go in the spring.
“There will be a lot of new faces, new ideas and new energy,” said Chief of Staff Patrick Barnes. “The retreat will be a great springboard to launch us into Spring Semester.”
Though Barnes said some staff will probably take the break from school to get ASUU work done, there will be “quite a bit less [work] than during the rest of the year in terms of hours.”
“The best analogy that you can use is that the break is like half-time at a football game,” Harrington said. “You can adjust, evaluate and get yourself fired up for the second half.”
ASUU will continue through the break to make plans with the newly hired Elections Registrar, Scott Ence, to improve on last year’s election process.
Additionally, ASUU officials will meet this Friday with administrators and its chosen consulting company, Cascadia, to determine exactly what kind of audit to conduct to create a recycling program at the U.
“All the involved parties will meet to set the plans for what we’ll be doing in January,” said Barnes. “We’re doing it before the break so we can begin as soon as possible.”