Government of the Student Body President Jared Knight issued an executive order removing the position of Secret Service and clarifying the duties of the Sergeant-at-Arms and a small number of subsidiary Sergeants-at-Arms who will act in his or her absence.

Knight appointed Rajin Olson, senator and vice-speaker of the Senate, as the current Sergeant-at-Arms.

Olson was appointed at the GSB meeting on Jan. 30.

“It’s a position we need to have,” Knight said. “I should’ve got to it a while ago.”

Knight explained that the title of Sergeant-at-Arms comes with different responsibilities to different organizations.

“Its parliamentary tradition,” Knight said. “Several years ago the GSB had this position to enforce policies, and it has been vacant for a couple years. We needed to get it.”

For GSB, “the main responsibility will be making sure everyone is abiding by the social media policy,” Olson explained. “There are not very many duties required.”

Simply put, it is a position to enforce all GSB policies during meetings.

For example, the social media policy prevents students from checking Facebook and Twitter during meetings.

Due to the hectic schedules of college students, Knight and Olson established that Olson would not be able to attend every GSB meeting.

Their solution was to create a “secret service” that would consist of subsidiary Sergeants-at-Arms to take on the responsibility when Olson could not be present.

“If there has ever been a waste of Senate time, this is it,” Senator Daniel Rediske said after Olson presented the idea of the secret service at the Jan. 30 meeting while wearing sunglasses and making jokes. 

“I felt we were spending more time on a joke than we do examining some of the issues that actually affect students on the Senate floor,” Rediske said. “I understand it was a joke and meant to be a bit of fun; I want GSB members to have fun. I just felt it had gone on too long.”

Knight issued an executive order ending the secret service program saying, “it was a joke some people couldn’t get past.”

Olson explained that he and Knight had a “similar mindset” on the position.

“We had our own understanding of the job internally, and all others saw was the title,” Olson said.

After Knight and Olson discussed the issue with other GSB senators, they decided to drop the name.

The order still calls for subsidiary Sergeant-at-Arms, but eliminates the title of “secret service.”

There will be one, or at most two, subsidiary Sergeants-at-Arms.

“They would need to be at every meeting, and hopefully familiar with Senate,” Olson said. “We want this to be as transparent as possible, and we’re always looking for more students to get involved with GSB.”

The subsidiary candidates will be selected through an interview process. Regardless of how many subsidiaries there are, only one will serve at a time.

For further information on becoming a subsidiary Sergeant-at-Arms, contact Rajin Olson or Jared Knight.