All things were new at the student government inauguration Sunday night as representatives welcomed a new location, new members and a new award.
Outgoing Student Government President Christine Walker and outgoing Executive Vice President David Dietz inaugurated a group of newly elected senators, executive board members and president in East College's Meharry Hall for the first time in the event's history.
Executive Vice President Nic Flores, a junior, said that he believed the change in location of the ceremony helped to encapsulate the seriousness of President Charles Pierre, also a junior, and himself in their new positions.
"This is the first time that anything like this has ever been done before … it is really awesome because this is something that really serves as a ceremonial ‘We mean business,' ‘We're excited about what we're doing,' ‘We want to be taken seriously' kind of venue to have," Flores said.
Pierre agreed that the venue held significance for the beginning of their term and it coincided with many of the ideas in their platform.
"Obviously this is where it all began so to speak, it was the first building here on campus so I think that it's very nice," Pierre said. "Nic and I alluded in our platform and in speaking with different organizations the importance of us celebrating our 175th year of existence next year so I think it's really cool to be able to say that we were inaugurated in the first building."
The student government also awarded the annual faculty award and first administrative award at the inauguration. Professor of creative writing Greg Schwipps won the faculty award voted on by the senior class and will speak at the 2011 ceremonial event held at the beginning of each academic year. Director of Public Safety Angie Nally won the first administrative award, given to the administrator who Student Senate found most valuable in his or her assistance over the course of the year.
After being invited to the ceremony under false pretences Nally received the award in a total sense of shock. She experienced such a great sense of disbelief upon hearing her name called that she needed to be reminded to walk up to the stage in order to receive her award.
Once she had the award in her arms she joked that she would not put it down for quite some time because she felt such excitement over it.
"I'm just really grateful because it comes from the students," Nally said. "I mean, what greater honor could any staff member or administrator at the university receive that's better than something directly from the students saying they appreciate the things that you do for them on a daily basis?"
Dietz expressed that he felt very pleased with giving the first award to Nally as she worked so hard with student government, and worked very well with the student body as a whole in order to develop a better relationship with Public Safety. He said he hopes that the award will continue to be awarded to outstanding staff members in the future.
"I'm really excited about the precedent and I hope that future student government executives will continue to have that much success with the administrators and use these awards as a way to get more people involved in the conversations," Dietz said.