The senators for the 2018-19 school year were sworn in at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Student Government meeting in the Campanile room, and conducted their first official meeting.

First order of business was to elect a new speaker for the senate. Candidates nominated were Vice Speaker Cody Woodruff, Kelsey Culbertson and Wyatt Scheu. 

Culbertsen said she was running because she loves Senate. She spent the past year as a senator and was vice chair of the public relations committee.

She said she wanted to work on respect and patience with one another this year, as the Student Government has had difficulty communicating respectfully in the past year.

Vice Speaker Woodruff worked closely under Speaker Zoey Shipley, and helped implement the mentor-mentee program. Woodruff said he was well versed in Robert’s Rules of Order, and he is the youngest elected official in the state of Iowa.

Scheu stated he also loves Senate, despite the fact that it can get frustrating. Scheu said he loves the debate and can get very passionate about topics in Student Government.

In the vote, Woodruff won the majority with two votes going to Culbertson and none for Scheu. 

Running for vice speaker, currently held by Cody Woodruff, were Jacob Schrader, Kathryn Walker, Scheu and Culbertson. 

Schrader is an active member of the Inter-Residence Hall Association (IRHA), a member of the campus Christian organization Navigators (Navs) and worked with the Legislative Ambassadors. 

Schrader proposed, if elected as vice speaker, potentially making a change to now-Speaker Woodruff’s program so senators paired with a mentor switch mentors at the end of the semester in order to interconnect with more senators in Student Government. 

Walker has been a member of the rules committee as well as university affairs and has a close relationship with faculty and staff. Walker expressed her love of Student Government and said she wants to continue this in the future. 

Culbertson when returning to the podium touched on the mentor mentee program as well, saying there should be more frequent meetings at the start of the year.

Scheu talked again about his passion for Student Government and the affect it can have on students at Iowa State. 

In the final vote, Culbertson received 15 votes earning her the position as vice speaker, with four votes going to Schrader, two votes to Walker and one to Scheu.

Sandeep Stanley, brand new senator to student government, and Walker both ran for the next position of the university relations chair.

Some of the programs presented by Walker include a career closet to help students with financial need be provided with business attire for job interviews and career fairs, as well as a university-wide alumni student mentorship program. 

Walker said she could use this position as a flexible role to do whatever the senate needs with relations with the university.

Stanley talked about Student Government’s need to strengthen diversity at Iowa State, including a plan to connect reporters at the Iowa State Daily with minority students to help give these students a voice.

When brought to a vote, Walker won with 17 votes in her favor and three for Stanley.

The chair of civic engagement position came up next, with two nominees: Caroline Warmuth and Schrader.

Schrader said he has an interest in engaging students in upcoming elections and referenced his activism with this in high school.

“I’m excited to work on this chair to get the student body as engaged as we can,” Schrader said.

As a member of Legislative Ambassadors, he lobbied against the rental occupancy ordinance and has advocated for students at the state level. 

Warmuth said her primary concern as chair of civic engagement would be that students don’t know how to vote.

“It’s super confusing doing a layout form for the layout process,” Warmuth said. “The bigger problem for getting students involved actually is the younger students. They don’t think they need to know.”

Wamuth proposed having senators go to 101 classes and tell students how to vote — as well as at Destination Iowa State — and said this could potentially help solve that problem.

Warmuth was elected to the position with all of the votes and zero votes going to Schrader.

The senate confirmed Chief of Staff Appointee Liera Bender at tonight’s meeting to kick off the confirmations. 

Bender has very little Student Government experience, however she says she makes up for this with her skills with time management. As a member of the Iowa State tennis team and a full-time student, she has learned to balance her time well.

She also talked about her leadership style and how she plans to apply that to the position of chief of staff for the upcoming school year.

“One thing I’ve learned with my leadership style is I build close relationships with the people I’m working with,” Bender said, “So I can keep them accountable.”

The Senate also confirmed the current treasurer Seth Carter to the position of finance director to replace Steven Valentino.

Valentino spoke his praises at the meeting Wednesday night, saying he has been easy to work with, he is organized and most importantly Carter loves accounting. 

“People in his accounting classes say he’s the only one in the room that ever knows what’s going on,” Valentino said.  

For the new position of peer advisor, Rachael Barnes has been confirmed for the position. 

As a prior chief of staff, she said she would work with a lot of the chief officers, and would be a great advisor.  

The next confirmation was of Vice President-elect Juan Bibiloni to vice president to the Cyride Board of Trustees. He is the current vice president of the board and one of the most experienced members of the board.

With the upcoming Cyride 2.0 project, Juan was integral in getting live enunciators on Cyride buses. 

Also confirmed this evening was Clerk of the Senate Kaitlyn Roling and Jacob Schrader was seated to the Cyride Board of Trustees.