Two new senators were elected to fill vacant seats on the Student Association Senate Monday night.
Spencer Legred and Nate Pasko were both chosen by a majority of senators to serve out the rest of the current senate’s term.
Legred, the SA’s former director of Marvin Center affairs, was elected undergraduate senator for Columbian College of Arts and Sciences until the end of the month, beating out senator-elect Luke Plowden.
“I know that there’s a lot that goes into this. I’ve been to most meetings this year,” Legred said ahead of the vote.
He touted his experience as executive director of GW Dance Marathon, and advocated lowering the cost of renting event space on campus and making the SA’s financial decisions more transparent.
Nate Pasko, who was already elected as an Elliott School of International Affairs undergraduate senator for next year, will begin his term a month early. He was chosen to join the senate over Sydney Nelson, who will also be a senator next year.
He argued for a spot in the current senate so he could “hit the ground sprinting” next year and begin implementing parts of his agenda this academic year.
Legred will fill the spot vacated by Thomas Falcigno, who is now executive vice president. Pasko replaces former Elliott School senator Rohan Bhargava, who resigned from the Senate after being suspended for missing too many meetings.
The senate also passed a bill requesting professors be more timely with returning grades on assignments.
The bill, which asks that professors return final exams and course grades within five days after the final exam is taken, sparked a debate about whether the resolution would have any practical impact.
Sen. Sydney Eskin, SEAS-U, said the bill would be a “friendly nudge letting them know that ‘yes it’s important that you get back to us in a timely manner.'”
Others questioned whether faculty would even be aware of such a resolution.
“I have very close relationships with faculty and they have no idea what this going to be. This is something the Faculty Senate should do,” Sen. Brady Forrest, CCAS-G, said.
