Wichita State’s Student Senate elected its new speaker Wednesday night. Mathew Phan, former student body vice president, will assume the role.
Phan won the vote for speaker over last session’s speaker, Victoria Owens. Each candidate was given a chance to present their attributes and goals to the senate before the vote.
Phan said he has three goals in the role: senator retention, outreach and intentionality.
He said he would implement more meetings with senators to focus on retention and organize tabling and meetings with first-year seminars and student organizations to further the Student Government Association’s outreach.
“For intentionality, I firmly believe that we must follow our bylaws and that we must be intentional in the way that we approach reaching out to and communicating with our constituents and writing legislation to address those concerns,” Phan said. “We must not become complacent or apathetic in our role as a student government.”
As speaker of the senate, Phan will lead senate meetings, including determining when bills and resolutions are discussed and voted on.
