The torch was passed to a new administration at the Government of the Student Body Leadership Recognition Dinner Tuesday night as the 1998-1999 senate ended its year with the dinner and recognized the people who make GSB work.

The faculty advisers, departing senators, members of the finance committee, executive cabinet and election commission each were honored during the culminating event of this year’s senate.

Former President and Vice President of GSB Bryan Burkhardt and Jamal White gave farewell addresses to the outgoing and incoming senates.

“Everyone here is somehow related to serving students. Whether you are elected to serve students, appointed to serve students or whether you are hired to serve students, you are here to serve others no matter who they are,” Burkhardt said. “With 25,000 students on this campus, we are not all going to agree, and doing things for them and making decisions are not always easy.”

Both Burkhardt and White reflected on their experiences throughout the year. Burkhardt even began his farewell with a slide show of images of this year’s senate.

“[Meetings] never really went past midnight this year. Everybody remembers that time we went till 11:30 [p.m.],” White said. “We didn’t have the stamina that past senates had. I was tired around 9:30.”

Advice to the new senate came from all outgoing members, especially Burkhardt.

“Make the students your best interest, and remember that you are working for them,” he said. “As members of GSB, you know that it is comprised of many different types of people from every residence area, every college and specialty areas. Please remember that you are not just to represent the people that are on the front of your placard, you are a Iowa State student first.”

The role of student government was a prominent topic among the speakers, and faculty adviser Vernon Wall reiterated the importance of student government.

“As we talk about student government, students around the country are specifying to student leaders what they need from student government,” Wall said. “They say ‘It is our money, do something with it!’ I feel that GSB is a very important entity on this campus, and I hope you look forward to the work that is ahead of you.”

Student leaders make the university a better place and have helped Iowa State become the best land grant university in the country, said J. Herman Blake, chair of the African American Studies Program.

“I am pleased to be speaking here because some of my greatest successes as an administrator came at the hands of student leadership,” Blake said. “Students have shown themselves to be great leaders. The students realize that being a student leader isn’t to become popular.”

The evening concluded with the inaugural addresses of incoming President and Vice President Matt Craft and Garrett Toay, who kept their speeches short.

“I am not going to say that much because tonight is the leadership recognition dinner to celebrate the accomplishments of Bryan and Jamal,” Toay said. “I am excited about working with next year’s senators, and I am sad to see my former colleagues go.

“It is time that we look to the future, but I would like to thank this year’s senate for all the hard work they did,” he said.

Both Craft and Toay spoke about not allowing personal differences to come between fellow senators.

“Most of what we do should not be political issues,” Craft said. “We are not on Capitol Hill, and we are not Republicans or Democrats; we are here for the best interests of the student body, and we need to work together.”