ASUI President Cruz Botello announced new vacancies in the organization at Wednesday’s senate meeting, including one that will be of great importance come January — the ASUI lobbyist.
The position is currently held by Rachael Miller, who will graduate this semester. Botello said he wishes Miller well, and is now searching for someone who is qualified and ready to travel to Boise next semester to lobby for ASUI at the Idaho State Capitol.
Miller has been working on legislation to mark student transcripts in the case of Title IX violations and a bill, sponsored by Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy, to grant residency fishing, hunting and trapping licenses and permits to nonresident, full-time students attending an accredited college or university in Idaho.
Sen. Tanner Beymer encouraged his fellow senators to be on the lookout for students who may be qualified and interested in the position.
“Rest assured that between President Botello and Director (McKenzie) MacDonald, things are being handled and taken care of and not to worry about it,” Beymer said.
Botello said he has people in mind to take over the position, and will have a better idea of who he might appoint this week.
He said he is also looking for someone to fill the student defender position, who would be responsible for protecting students’ rights under the Constitution, and the Idaho Commons and Union Board chair, who would be in charge of issues involving the Commons. The position could be of relevance soon, since Botello decided to move forward with plans to convert a space in the Commons into a student lounge.
Botello said the cabinet has discussed possibly making improvements to the campus, including increasing lighting to improve student safety and addressing parking concerns.
“We will be exploring options as far as improving the parking situation,” Botello said.
Beymer also announced that the Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday at 8 a.m. in the Wellspring Room to discuss a bill to allocate $106.25 from the senate budget to the Office of the President. According to the bill, the money will go toward funding three rental buses to transport students to UI’s men’s basketball game at 6 p.m. Dec. 7 in Pullman.
Taylor Nadauld can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @tnadauldarg