The shuffle in Whitewater Student Government (WSG) continues.
At the first meeting of the spring semester Monday, Jan. 29, the body of senators selected a new speaker, a new parliamentarian and swore in a significant number of returning senators.
For the second time this academic year, sophomore accounting major Charlie Kudy was elected speaker of the senate after former speaker Sean Spangard was promoted into WSG President Tom Kind’s cabinet.

The position opened after Spangard took a position as the Associate Director of Academic Affairs in WSG President Tom Kind’s executive board.
Kudy won after a unanimous 11-0 vote. A large portion of the senate was waiting in the gallery to be re-appointed into the governing body, resulting in the low number of votes.
“I’d like to help lead this body into the future,” Kudy said during the meeting. “I hope to establish one-on-one working relationships with each of you and build deeper connections between the senate.”
As speaker, Kudy said he plans to stress the importance of communication, in addition to inclusivity and creating bonds within the senate.

This was one of his goals the last time he was elected in October 2017.
“Communication is key. If you can’t communicate openly and truthfully, then there is no way for a body to function,” he said.

WSG was set to name a deputy speaker at the meeting, but Spangard, speaking from his role as a member of the executive board, asked that the election be tabled until next meeting.
“There are people in the galley who I feel would do a great job as deputy speaker and it’s unfortunate that they won’t be able to run tonight,” he said, defending his reasoning.

WSG voted unanimously to hold the election for deputy speaker at a later meeting.
The group did not hold the same reservations for the role of parliamentarian after choosing to table the deputy speaker election, electing junior Aaron Kosma to the role.

“We have had great parliamentarians in the past and I would like to continue to build on that. I think we as a body run efficiently but we are still not performing the best that we can,” Kosma said to those at the meeting.

Kosma said he would like to help senators become more familiar with writing legislation and work with them on the program they use to write it. He was unanimously voted into the position.

After Kudy and Kosma were elected into their new roles, enough WSG senators in the galley took the oath of office and returned to their seats to meet quorum for future legislative endeavors.