After ASNMU elections last week, elected members joined for their first meeting of the semester.At the meeting, held on Tuesday, April 15, members discussed future plans of the student government and swore in the new members.
“I could not be happier with the results of the first ASNMU meeting,” Katerina Klawes said. “I believe that ASNMU made significant progress within the first meeting. The first meeting was proof that the current ASNMU members are off to a good start and that great things will be accomplished next year.
Junior secondary educational English and theater and entertainment arts double-major Katerina Klawes and senior biology major Katelyn Liubakka were sworn in as president and vice-president of ASNMU, respectively.
“Well this year is going to be really exciting,” Vito Giannola Current ASNMU Academic Affairs Chairman said. “We have new leadership in there Kat (Klawes) and Katie (Liubakka) who have already taken the initiative by introducing a bunch of new ideas that will help ASNMU gain some appreciation amongst the student body.
“We have 12 new members that are showing interest and already brainstorming projects. But we still have a lot of work to do to ensure the students are getting what they need out of their student government and that is to be a body that make the experience at NMU better.”
Along with president and vice president, general assembly members were sworn into office. The members included off-campus representative senior social work major Rachel McCaffrey, off-campus representative senior English Alex Hawke, up-campus representative sophomore graphics communications major Alex Nekvasil, art and sciences representative junior biology and spanish double-major Danielle Schafer, arts and sciences representative junior economics and political science double-major Mitchell Sevigny, health and professional studies representative freshman mechanical engineering major Danny Barry and graduate studies representative senior English major Alex Nye.
Giannola was also voted in as the new treasure of ASNMU during the appointments portion of the meeting. Giannola was sworn in as treasure at the conclusion of the meeting at 9 p.m. Tuesday. He will officially take the place of the current treasure Nathan Bradbury during the next meeting on Tuesday, April 22.
“As treasure I’m looking forward to taking on the new responsibilities both with ASNMU and SFC (Student Finance Comittee); it’s going to be a great experience,” Giannola said.“I am honored that I have the chance to serve alongside such a dedicated member like Vito Gionnola,” Klawes said. “Working alongside him this past academic year, I was able to observe the highest quality of work.”
ASNMU plans to continue efforts toward a larger bike share program. They are looking for new members to take over the current program and expand it to the summer semesters as well. During the meeting ASNMU also proposed several new programs and promotional services to help better ASNMU’s presence on campus.
A sun lamp program was proposed by Danielle Schafer. The sun lamps would be located at the LRC and would require a green house for students to receive Vitamin D during the winter semesters. ASNMU is also proposing offering crampons for students during winter months to help with icy conditions.
“The sun lamps will help the student body by providing some much needed Vitamin D that is lacking in the Marquette climate,” Liubakka said. “The crampons will help the student body walk safely to class in hazardous ice conditions. These ideas were discussed as a group informally before the meeting and Danielle Schafer felt comfortable presenting them in a formal setting.”
The proposal called for an initial 200 crampons to be ordered to see the effectiveness of the program.
ASNMU will conclude the semester with one last meeting at 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 22. Enrollment Management and Student Services Vice President Steve Neiheisel will be holding a presentation during the meeting on the slogan change of Northern Michigan University.
“At this time ASNMU would welcome any input on the ‘Fearless Minds’ slogan,” Klawes said. “ASNMU has the opportunity of hearing the official position and looks forward to passing the information onto the student populace.”Responding to the current allegations against former ASNMU president Amber Lopota, Luibakka said that they hope to start as a new organization.
“ASNMU does not condone any violation of the student code when one individual’s actions do not represent the entire assembly,” Liubakka said. “We look forward to a fresh start next year.”The ASNMU meeting is located in Room 1204 of lower level of the University Center. ASNMU can be contacted at (906) 227-2452 or [email protected].
