Within minutes of being sworn in as the new Michigan Student Assembly president at last night’s MSA meeting, Sarah Boot was already working to make the transition easier for all MSA representatives.
- Paul Wong
- Sarah Boot is sworn as new MSA President last night by Central Student Judiciary Chief Justice Steven Couch. (ALYSSA WOOD/Daily)
Boot urged the representatives to begin working on their projects as soon as possible, and she set up 15-minute appointments with each of them.
“I’m really excited to have you here and I think we’ll get some amazing things done,” she said.
New MSA Vice President Dana Glassel addressed the assembly after Boot, saying she had a difficult time understanding how MSA functioned when she first became a representative. She said she hopes to avoid such problems by providing advice to representatives
Glassel added that if representatives put aside their party backgrounds, MSA will be able to get many projects accomplished for the student body.
“Each one of you guys is just as capable of working with the administration,” she said.
Boot and Glassel were sworn in by Steven Couch, the Chief Justice of the Central Student Judiciary, after former MSA President Matt Nolan coordinated one final meeting, which was mostly devoted to thanking the executive officers and representatives who have served on MSA for the past year.
But before Nolan handed the gavel over to Boot, he warned the assembly about avoiding political disputes in his final presidential report.
Nolan reviewed MSA’s 101-year history to point out that many political parties have come and gone, and that the only reason so many of these parties have existed is because many students have wanted to be involved in MSA.
These party differences should not stop people from accomplishing their goals, Nolan said.
“They all campaign on the same things and they all want to do the same stuff,” he said. Putting aside political differences is especially important because many of these parties have disbanded after only a few semesters, and MSA’s annual turnover has been fairly high, Nolan said.
“You guys have a very short time to get done what you want to do, and to waste time … it’s ridiculous,” he said.
Nolan also took the opportunity to praise the assembly one final time, saying the work an average committee has done this year is comparable to the accomplishments of the entire MSA when he joined two and a half years ago.
“The people in this room right now, I can say unequivocally, without a doubt, have a much higher knowledge of how the campus works than two and a half years ago,” he said.
Former MSA Vice President Jessica Cash personally thanked each MSA representative in her final executive report.
Leading their first MSA meeting, Boot and Glassel were presented with several resolutions. MSA voted to approve funding for Earth Week, renewed the Campus Improvement Taskforce Initiative and condemned recent racist remarks chalked on the Diag a few weeks ago. MSA also allocated $200 to the Peace and Justice Commission to make anti-racism buttons.