The Student Government Senate convened to confirm various cabinet and committee positions during the weekly meeting Wednesday evening. 

Emily Roberts, junior in chemical engineering and former director of academic affairs, was confirmed unanimously to serve as chief of staff. In addition to her involvement with Iowa State Student Government, Roberts was previously involved in the student government at the University of Minnesota. 

The Senate also confirmed Arianna Fischer, senior in business analytics and former vice president of Inter-Residence Hall Association as director of affordability.

According to the Student Government bylaws, the director of affordability is responsible for working with the university administration to improve affordability for students at Iowa State. Fischer sees there are three pillars of affordability: education, personal and futuristic.

Fischer cited immediate access course materials, food insecurity and renters guides for off-campus students as topics of affordability relating to student life. 

“College is a time where there is a lot of transitioning to become financially independent,” said Fischer. “Leveraging your future expenses can be done by taking advantage of career services and attending the career fair.”

The vote for senior director of communications was the first contested vote of the night. Christian Grensteiner, sophomore in event management, former director of outreach for Student Government and campaign manager for the Ludwig-Ahlrichs campaign, was confirmed to the position with a vote of 26-1-0.

Conversations during Grensteiner’s confirmation were focused on the effectiveness of Student Government’s outreach efforts. Previously, efforts focused on tabling outside Parks Library or in the Memorial Union. Grensteiner plans to switch up the approach.

“We plan on re-evaluating tabling. We found it is not as effective anymore. What we plan on doing is us going to students. How I plan on doing that is being more active in different student organizations and their events,” Grensteiner said. 

Student Government had discussion of re-evaluating their outreach approach after seeing a Senate order on March 9 titled Tasking Public Relations Committee with Developing Outreach Reforms.

According to Student Government bylaws, the senior director of communications is to coordinate outreach initiatives and relations between The Iowa State Daily and other affiliated news sources.The other two public relations related positions, director of marketing and director of outreach, were filled in the previous meeting. Maddie Willits, junior in graphic design and graphic designer for the Ludwig-Ahlrichs campaign, was confirmed as the director of marketing. 

Jamie Hoss, senior in communications studies and former College of Liberal Arts and Sciences senator, was confirmed as director of outreach. 

When speaking to the Senate, Hoss said outreach efforts of the past should be reevaluated.

Blake Van Der Kamp, junior in agriculture and life sciences education and former Election Commission member, was confirmed as director of sustainability. 

Bryce Garman, senior in public relations and former director of marketing, was confirmed as the Ex-Officio to the Ames City Council. 

The Senate confirmed Sarah Schroeder, senior in food science and SHOP public relations chair, as the non-profit coordinator. The non-profit coordinator works closely with the ASSET (Analysis of Social Services Evaluation Team) funding process. ASSET uses the student activity fee for Ames and Story County non-profits. Student Government approved over $260,000 be allocated to ASSET for fiscal year 2023.

Other cabinet positions confirmed were the director of information technology, director of student services, director of health and wellness and committee members for finance, rules and student initiatives committees. 

Jacob Ludwig, senior in economics and student body president, nominated himself for the CyRide board of trustees and Jaden Ahlrichs, senior in global resource systems and student body vice president, to the student fee and tuition committee. Rachel Schnepf, sophomore in computer engineering, was also confirmed to the CyRide board.