ASNMU’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 1 was the first of the semester where the assembly was held in full attendance.During the meeting, ASNMU was able to move forward in the voting process for a chairman of assembly after holding meetings. Previously Vice President Abby Roche was holding the position until a replacement was found.
An unanimous vote by the assembly of ASNMU elected Brandon Zanon as chairman and he began his position immediately after the voting approval.
“I’m just really happy to be part of it,” Zanon said. “Hopefully I can make a positive influence to help make sure that we keep up with the direction that has been started by Amber.”
Zanon said while holding his position he hopes to keep moving forward.
“I’ll be focusing primarily on efficiency within the assembly,” Zanon said. “Making sure that members are actually present during their office hours, that people are being accountable and that our meetings go fast.”
President Amber Lopota said no longer having to revisit closing in on a candidate was a step for progress that relieved many of the members.
“Our vice president will have a little less on her plate and that’s always a good thing,” Lopota said, “She’s always doing a million and one things, and doing a million will probably feel like a breeze for her now.”
Along with relieving the position from Roche, Zanon’s passion for the position was a good fit for ASNMU.
“Brandon has relentlessly come every week with pursuing the position and I have every hope that he’s going to do the position justice,” Lopota said. “Just like every other representative I would ask that everyone watches for the transparency and hold us accountable, make sure that we’re doing our job.”
ASNMU also attended the SAM (Student Association of Michigan) Conference Friday, Sept. 27 through Sunday, Sept. 29 at Saginaw Valley State University. ASNMU was represented by Katerina Klawes and Amer Mansoor of the academic affairs board.
Lopota said the SAM conference is always a great experience for ASNMU members to help better the student body.
“It was nice for the assembly to have a full report; it’s not something we’ve seen consistently in the past,” Lopota said. “It really helps familiarize the assembly in what we can bring back when we do it, especially when it’s done in a productively and effective way. I’d like to see that to continue to happen and us really gain something that we can give to the students.”
ASNMU is also co-sponsoring the Women for Women Breast Cancer Awareness 5k Walk/Run at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 across campus.
“The walk will benefit the oncology unit at MGH,” Lopota said. “Our promotion director designed a special sticker that she will sell at the event, and she’s going to donate 75 percent of all the profits along with the women for women donations to the unit.”
Seconds to Success, a career closet to help students during job fairs and interviews, will be up and running during mid-October, according to Lopota.
ASNMU has been working along with others across the campus to make the career closet possible.
“We received a tremendous amount of support from the alumni foundation as well as the parenting fund Martha Haynes was pivotal in helping us in guiding us throughout the summer as well as the past few months,” Lopota said.
The process of building the Seconds to Success is in full swing said Lopota.
“We have it all cleared out, we’ve received the keys and the order for the hardware is taking place this week,” Lopota said. “So we can expect to see it in next week. We’ll start building the space, laying it out and then get it stocked.”
There was a large emphasis on getting the career closet up and running before the end of December graduation, when students are looking for employment said Lopota.
“I think it’s going to be a fantastic opportunity to really give students an edge when they go out for that next step; we’re all going to get there, why not be prepared?”
Students can attend ASNMU meetings 7 p.m. Tuesdays in the upper level of the UC.
