Student Senate chose a new chief of staff and a new organization director in their meeting Jan. 30.

Senior Paul Coates was voted in as chief of staff and senior Brittany Whited was voted in as the director of the Student Office of Sustainability by voice vote.

Coates said that he plans to help develop a more open and welcoming environment, both for senators and students.

“I’d like to build up relations between the senators themselves,” he said, “and make sure that if any senators have any problems with issues on campus that their voices are being heard and that they know what kind of steps to take to help put that into bills or resolutions.”

Coates said what is most important to him is making the relationship between senators and students more transparent. He said he hopes this will allow students to vocalize what their issues are on campus and how senate can help them out.

“One of the ideas that I have is to just make the Senate office more welcoming to anybody so it won’t be intimidating and encourage students to voice their opinions,” Coates said.

Whited said she plans to continue with the projects she had been working on as an intern for SOS.

“What I’d like to improve on this semester is just staying organized and keeping in touch with other sustainability organizations on campus,”
she said.

One of SOS’s projects this semester is Zimride, which launched last week.  Whited said Zimride is like a more advanced ride board, where students can find rides or riders not only from UW-Eau Claire, but from other universities as well.

And it has already worked for Whited personally.

“I already got a ride for the weekend,” she said.

Among the other projects that Whited and SOS will be working on are bicycle rentals for students and composting centers in some of the residence halls, one of which should be placed in Chancellors Hall in about a month.