Hobie Webster and Jack Calamaro were sworn in on Tuesday night as the new president and vice president of ASNMU. Both agree their main focus before fall semester is to fill all open positions left in ASNMU, get the ASNMU Web site up and move to a paperless based government system.

Webster hopes to see a continuation of the level of student involvement he has seen on campus recently.

“I hope that the awakening that’s happened in the student body is something that carries over from the summer and they bring it back with them in the fall,” he said. “I think that involvement is really going to be key.”

Webster attributes one of the reasons for the large voter turnout in this year’s ASNMU election to the amount of candidates who ran.

“Each [candidate] had their own following. There was some competition there, but each candidate worked very hard to get the vote out, which is something that’s very important.”

Calamaro said what she hopes to accomplish before fall is filling the open government positions, including a public relations representative and an information technology director. She also plans on talking to past vice presidents to find out what they did and what they would have improved upon.

“I think it is important to reflect back on who was before you and their opinion because they’ve done it. They know,” she said.

Former ASNMU President Chris Storves said Webster is working very hard and putting forth a lot of effort, but he needs to take some of the advice the current administration has to further help him in his presidency.

“He should actively take recommendations and listen to people, because we’ve already been around the block,” Storves said. “We want him to succeed in leading the students of NMU and take what we have to say to heart.”

Storves said he thinks that, while a lot of the changes planned will be positive, some aren’t in the best interest of ASNMU, such as replacing the ASNMU Treasurer and chair of the Student Finance Committee (SFC), Katey Newton.

“I really agree with revamping the ASNMU Web site and making it a great tool for students,” he said. “But I think there will be problems with the SFC. His choice not to select Katey Newton is a very bad one.”

Webster said his decision not to have Newton back as ASNMU treasurer was the result of many different things. He believes that Newton did an excellent job in the time she worked for the SFC but said that hiring Andrew Foster was a positive step for everyone.

“It was time for a change, we needed someone to come in and reimage the SFC,” he said. “It was an opportunity to get someone who was really dedicated to the same kind of vision for the ASNMU and SFC.”

He also said as he moves forward in his presidency he’s considering the students’ dedication to their candidates.

“One of the challenges that I’m going to have in the next two weeks is to bring those people who were passionate about their candidate for ASNMU and make sure that they know my office door is open,” Webster added.

Calamaro agreed that the students of NMU need to know what ASNMU is about and that it exists to benefit them.

“I love meeting with people, I love hearing their ideas,” she said. “It’s their office, it’s their student dollar, it’s their voice.”