While the sun shone and a slight breeze blew outside, the Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress (HUSC) General Assembly meeting commenced for the final time of the 2023-2024 academic year. As students, faculty and staff got settled, Internal President Abi Grace Mart began the meeting.
Executive board members had little to report except many brief goodbyes and expressions of gratitude as this was many of the members’ last General Assembly (GA). External President Travis Matthews expressed his excitement to pass the gavel on to sophomore Elisa Lopez and sophomore Oliver Engstrom.
Next came a quick run-through of unfinished business which entailed Lopez and Engstrom going over their 2024-2025 budget. Some conflicts arose over the past few weeks with budgeting for organizations as some had not submitted their budgets on time so they were having issues with finding the right amount of money to provide every organization with the money they needed. This led to the request of a $7,000 increase in the budget for organizations. An emergency vote was sent out in the HUSC GroupMe group chat and passed there. The representatives needed to finalize their decision with a vote in the following GA, which it passed on Tuesday.
Dean of Students Patti Klein-Kersten took to the front of the room to announce the recipients of the HUSC Scholarship. The creator of this scholarship, former Dean of Students Alan Sickbert, presented the awards to the students and expressed that it is an honor and a privilege to come back to HUSC meetings. The recipients were sophomore Manal Ahmed, junior Calli Swink, and senior Emmett Frett.
Mart then presented the Faculty and Staff of the Year awards, which went to the English and Communications Department Chair and Professor Suda Ishida and Scene Shop Supervisor Steven Read respectively.
Graduating seniors who served on HUSC’s executive board participated in a pinning ceremony where Klein-Kersten and Director of Student Activities and Leadership Patrick Haught handed the students a pin, stole or both to wear at graduation.
During a pause between ceremonies as food was brought in, Mart took the opportunity to thank and congratulate everyone on HUSC, particularly the executive board for all the work they did over the year. Teary eyes filled the room as emotional sentiments were shared, but business marched on as Interim President Kathleen Murray went to the front of the room to begin the passing of the gavel.
Murrary swore in Lopez as the External President and Engstrom as the Internal President of HUSC for the 2024-2025 academic year. They each received their mini gavels, and Mart relinquished the role of hosting GA to the new presidents. Lopez and Engstrom then could announce the executive board for the next year.
Next year’s board will include first-year Anna Beaudry as secretary, sophomore Matthew Maroney as treasurer, senior Elmo Glass as tech coordinator, junior Abbi Kutz as BER chair, junior Alexandra Kretsch as PAC chair, sophomore Heather Chandler as EAC chair and sophomore Momed Abdirahman as PRC chair. Engstrom signed in the new executive board.
Engstrom then took the opportunity to announce closing remarks for the first time of his presidency and officially ended the meeting, ringing in a new era of HUSC leadership.
To learn more about HUSC, visit hamline.husc.edu or attend a general assembly restarting in the Fall Semester on Tuesdays from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in GLC 100E.