Monday night the Students’ Association Senate elected their speaker and deputy speaker for next year. Alex Voetsch, a current junior, will serve as speaker and sophomore Peter Nabozny will serve as deputy speaker.
“My main goal as a speaker is to establish close working relationships with other leaders on campus, such as the administration, the president and the Campus Times, to name a few,” Voetsch said. “I feel that open lines of communication are a key to making changes that benefit the students.Also I want to make sure that the senate continues to be productive through all of our committees and the group advocacy project.”
During his two-year tenure on the senate, Voetsch has been active with the steering committee and the projects committee. He believes that these past experiences will help him keep the senate strong and in order.
Pete Nabozny was elected to the senate this past fall. Most recently, he has served as the Election Committee Chair.
“I think the senate needs to improve its image and provideshow people why it is relevant for the students on this campus and to manyadministrators,” Nabozny said. “I think Alex Voetsch will do an excellent job at this as speaker, and together I believe that we can work well with whoever the incoming president may be, as well as important administrators at the college.I want the senate to be a body that student groups can come to for help and support, not one that they feel they have to battle against. Personally, as deputy speaker, I hope to build relationships with student groups so that the groups and the senate all feel that we are on the same side.”
The senate will face a variety of issues and tasks next year. “The new senate and senate leadership seems ready and willing to tackle the variety of issues which need to be dealt with. Next year’s senate has a lot of work before them, but I believe they are up to the challenge,” SA President and senior Lonny Mallach said. “I think that next year’s leadership will be capable of renewing and rebuilding our government, and I look forward to seeing it happen.I think Alex Voetsch will make an excellent speaker of the senate.”
Voetsch is optimistic about the senate’s future and his ability lead the body. “I wanted to be speaker because I saw a need for greater communication and cooperation between different student groups and government.”
UR graduate to head humanitarian efforts in postwar Iraq
George Ward, a Class of 1965 graduate and former ambassador to Namibia, has been named to head humanitarian relief efforts in postwar Iraq, according to a press release.
Ward will join a the team led by retired U.S. Army General Jay Garner, who heads the Pentagon’s new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance.
In the last few years, Ward has been director of training for the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent, nonpartisan federal institution created by Congress to promote the prevention, management and peaceful resolution of international conflicts.
Ward joined the Institute in 1999 after a 30-year career in the Foreign Service, which concluded with his appointment as U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Namibia in 1996-99.
Reporting by Jeff Keesing and Todd Hildebrandt.
