LaTerricka Osborne stepped down from her position as a senator at the Senate’s Regular Meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18. Two new senators, Senator Auryon Azar and Senator Erin McCargar, were sworn in.
Candidates were given a three-minute opportunity to speak before the Senate voted on appointments. Azar, a freshman majoring in Economics and Political science and minoring in astronomy, spoke first. An initiative he hopes to jump start through student government is making EMU more environmentally friendly.
“I think I would just be honored to be apart of a system that allows for us to really take control of how we lead our lives and the quality of life on campus- at least to an extent. That being said I think if I was appointed to be appointed a senate seat the thing that I would be focusing on the most would be to make Eastern more environmentally friendly. I don’t know how well known this is but everything that we throw into recycling bins just gets dumped into the trash and thrown into landfills which is pretty depressing and unacceptable frankly. I want to be part of the solution in fixing that,” said Azar.
Osbourne then asked Azar what personality he would bring to the senate.
“So specifically I think I’m someone who chooses what I do very carefully because everything that I do I want to make sure that I can put the maximum effort into. So it’s not like someone who is trying to do a hundred things at once,” Azar said. “I kind of want to pick what I know I can put my best effort in."
The second candidate, Erin McCargar, a transfer student studying public administration and urban planning followed Azar with her three minute speech. McCargar is passionate about public transportation, housing, food access, and using statistics to form public policies among other things. She hopes to eventually work for local government in some capacity.
“I guess one of the things that would make me a great candidate is my age. I have a baby face but I’m actually 25 years old. Right after high school I went to New York, and I went to college for a year and a half and then I took five years off and I lived and worked. I lived in different areas and I worked in several different professions and I think that’s given me a lot of maturity and has helped me grow so I definitely have a different level of confidence now than I had when I was younger. I have better communication skills, I work in a team much better than I did before,” McCargar said.
“When I was a young student I had a lot of optimism,” McCargar said. “But I found that that kind of burnt me out because I was too optimistic and as I’ve matured I’ve learned that more consistent effort can give great results but it’s more about the long term and about the relationships you form along the way and the small victories.”
After the speeches were complete, numerous senators expressed their disappointment that only one Senate seat was open at the time. In response, Senator Osbourne promptly responded that she would happily resign to make room for both candidates. A recess was called and after some deliberation, the meeting was called back to order and Senator Osbourne gave up her seat.
“I’m about to graduate in December. I already planned to leave in April, and fortunately for me because I’m so resourceful and I have so many other things that I’m apart of I’m like, well, the things that I’m doing in student government don’t necessarily have to be a senator for. So I’m saying if I’m leaving in April, why not just expedite the process since we have these two great candidates and let them be at this point. Not to mention, I get my time back as a person,” explained Osbourne in an interview with the Echo. “So at the end of the day, it was more so like, ‘You help me, I help you’ in all actuality but I’m really glad that I do get to see these two people take my spot and another one because it makes me feel better because I don’t want to relinquish it to anybody.”
