Senate President Devlin Gautier not to run for second term

Student Senate President Ana Devlin- Gauthier will not be running for another term, the junior environmental science major announced at a Senate meeting on January 26.

Devlin Gauthier hopes to explore different options over the upcoming semesters including jobs with Residence Life and the Career Development Center, and does not feel she can devote the time to the position that is required to do an excellent job.

Devlin Gauthier tackled her fair share of challenges throughout her time as president, none more challenging than attempting to organize the student need for field space during a growing time of limited space on campus. Facilitating requests for field space for clubs like the Baseball team or the Frisbee team has become a difficult task, considering the demand for both Tucker field and Merrill Field during the fall season, and McLane Gym and Davis Gym during the winter.

“We simply do not have enough space and it is an issue we try to deal with,” Devlin Gauthier stated.

While the field space issue has been an on-going problem for most of the year, Devlin-Gauthier and her executive board have been able to achieve successes along the way. In the next couple weeks senate will be hosting a second block party for clubs at AU. Traditionally, one “block party” is held at the beginning of the school year in hopes of recruiting first year students to the assorted clubs on campus. Devlin-Gauthier hopes to garner additional interest in student involvement at Alfred by hosting another block party in February.

Other accomplishments of the 2010-2011 executive board include an updated senate constitution and helping to “change the image” of student senate. Devlin-Gauthier wanted to get clubs to work closer with senate and that meant loosening the strict following of Roberts Rules, which places heavy emphasis on the motioning and seconding of proposals as well as the strict monitoring of the process in which people are allowed to speak. Devlin-Gauthier felt to follow these rules to the letter would create a business-like atmosphere in which people did not feel comfortable approaching the senate floor with ideas. The hope was to slowly phase in the Roberts Rules and find a common middle ground.

With the announcement of Devlin-Gauthier not running for a second term, the race for President and Vice President will not have incumbents running for office as VP Matt Brown is scheduled to graduate in May. Senate Finance Chair Kevin Nagel is currently the only student to announce his candidacy at the time.

Elections are currently scheduled to happen Feb. 9.