Casting ballot after ballot, the Student Senate appointed 14 students to committee positions.

Senate members filled 13 of the available committee positions, while other positions could be filled by any UW-Eau Claire student. David Miller, a first-year student studying actuarial science, was nominated and elected as he sat in the general attendance gallery.

“I’m very happy I was appointed,” Miller said. “I’ve been wanting to get more involved in Student Senate and I think this will be a good way to get involved and hopefully reach my goal of becoming a senator.”

A senator position will be opening at the end of the semester, Miller said, and he will try to get appointed then. Otherwise, he plans to run at the end of the year. Miller said he wants to be part of representing the student body and often attends the Senate meetings to observe the organization.

The final committee seeking to add a member was the Web Team, which works to improve Eau Claire’s web presence. Senator Ryan Ring nominated Web Coordinator Devon Derks but was informed this was not possible as Derks was not in attendance.

The Senate made several other nominations before Campus Affairs Director Lars Nelson asked if it was possible to fetch a potential nominee if they were in the building. Parliamentarian Alec Putnam confirmed the possibility, as long as the candidate was present before the nominations ceased.

Nelson quickly left the room and returned with Derks, who was subsequently chosen for the position. Derks had been working front desk at the activities, involvement and leadership office in Davies at the time of the meeting.

“Derks has a lot of great experience within website design and website construction,” Nelson said.

In addition to web coordinator, Derks is the BluSync intern and serves on the campus affairs commission. He works with both the Senate and university websites to make them more accessible to users.

The appointments made Monday evening and further information on the commissions can be found on the Student Senate website.

In addition, the Senate approved one student organization and added two more to next week’s agenda.

Director Nelson said the Community Theory Organization (CTO) is an interdisciplinary activist organization that looks to break ideological barriers, encourage constructive dialogues and promote peaceful living for individuals and the community.

Senator Alex Stout and intergovernmental affairs director Nick Webber both voiced support to vote in approval of the organization.

“I believe that this is a great thing not only for UW-Eau Claire, but also for the Eau Claire community,” Webber said. “This organization will help critique the good, bad and ugly of Eau Claire and help improve our society as a whole.”

Nelson also introduced the Researchers and Innovators Club and Music Students of Color organization to new business. Voting to approve these organizations will occur at next week’s meeting.