New SGA cabinet to be chosen

Student Government Association President Matthew McCann will make his first appointments for his executive cabinet at the first SGA Senate meeting of the semester Thursday.

The positions McCann will be appointing include: chief of staff, comptroller, attorney general and the directors of the administration, campus life, communications, student affairs and governmental affairs divisions.

The students will be appointed by McCann at the senate meeting where they will then be remanded to the Elections and Appointments Committee. Regardless of how the E&A Committee votes, appointees will present their résumés and ideas at the following senate meeting where senators will be able to question them on their qualifications. Senate will vote, and if the appointee receives two-thirds of the votes in favor, they will be sworn in and become official members of the cabinet.

"It was truly mixed," said McCann of the pool of applicants.

McCann said he and his vice president, Adam Brock, saw people with years of experience in SGA apply as well as people who have never set foot in the office.

"This year our expectations were exceeded," McCann said. "It made the decision much more difficult than we probably had anticipated, but in the end the results were exactly what we wanted, if not more."

Brock said the best part was seeing so many new people wanting to get involved.

"We have such a diverse cabinet in so many different ways that we feel that we virtually hit almost every single demographic of campus where we can hear all of these student concerns and truly get a grasp of the student voice here on campus," Brock said.

McCann said one of his primary concerns now that he and Brock have officially taken office, as of May 9, is to make sure that the people they choose for their executive cabinet are appointed without any problems and that they are well-educated and continue learning about the different responsibilities their job comes with, even after they are sworn in.

"We have the highest hopes for this upcoming year," McCann said.

He said that, though only time will tell how his cabinet differs from the previous administration, he thinks his cabinet choices represent a more diverse group of on-campus organizations and a larger demographic of students.

"Kilbride and Lochrane did an excellent job last year of selecting a cabinet and they really set that bar high," McCann said. "Adam and I came into it wanting to make sure that we exceeded those expectations that were set and I think we did that."

Senate President Pro Tempore and the most recent Activity and Service Fee Budget Chairman Josh Miller has been selected for the comptroller position, which would entail supervising the accounting and financial reporting within SGA.

Miller said he thinks it'll be a nice change from sitting on senate.

"I'm very honored to be appointed," he said. "It's something I really wanted to do."

Miller said he expects a lot of questions from senators during the process, but is prepared to answer them.

"I don't really know what they're going to throw at me," he said. "I want it to be more about what ideas I have and the things I want to do for the future."