The Student Association Senate unanimously approved two appointees to serve as executive and legislative chiefs of staff next year during a meeting Monday.
Senators elected Catherine Morris as the president’s chief of staff and Zachary Nosanchuk as the senate’s chief of staff to help manage the executive and legislative branches of the SA, respectively. After SA President Brandon Hill ascended to the SA’s top post in January following the resignation of then-President Howard Brookins, Morris replaced Hill as executive vice president and Nosanchuck served as the president’s chief of staff – experience that the appointees say prepared them for their new positions.
As the executive chief of staff, Morris said she will continue to work with administrators after she helped implement free student subscriptions to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post through negotiations with officials last year. She said she has collaborated with other SA members to connect them with administrators to initiate policies like improving access to the Colonial Health Center.
“I’ve also continued to work on things in my time as policy adviser in helping different senators with their policy initiatives and connecting them with administrators as well as working most recently on some issues with the Colonial Health Center and other health and wellness initiatives with President Hill and with Vice President Carpenter,” Morris said. “So I hope to continue doing that.”
Zachary Nosanchuk said he previously served as the SA’s director of interfaith engagement, where he worked with the Multicultural Student Services Center and religious organizations to improve their interfaith spaces on campus. He said this experience has prepared him to help write legislation and policy initiatives as senate chief of staff.
“Catherine and Brandon and I are so excited to be working with this robust cabinet that we’re talking about, and I would be honored to be your chief of staff again to work to plan amazing events and create projects and get policies done,” Nosanchuk said.
The senate voted against an amendment that Hill proposed to the Financial Modernization Act last month to allow the SA to pay chiefs of staff minimum wage for up to 20 hours per week. Senators expressed concerns that paying chiefs of staff may be seen as a reward for students that supported SA campaigns.
The senate tabled legislation to establish secretary positions within the executive branch Monday, delaying until next meeting because not enough senators were present to vote with a two-thirds majority.
The senate will hold its last meeting of the academic year next Monday to approve positions for the Joint Elections Commission and the rest of the legislative staff positions.
