By Tisha Herrera, Staff Writer; Michael Eberhart, News Editor

Mason’s 39th Student Senate met for the first time on Thursday, April 26, 2018 in Merten Hall. New student government members were sworn into office, elected to senate leadership positions, and voted to confirm appointments to the new executive cabinet.

The meeting began with student body President Rebekah Pettine and Vice President Erik Truong taking their oaths of office, followed by the senatorial oath for new student senators.

The following new and returning senators were sworn in: Jeremy Aylward, McKenna Bates, Corey Berkey, Matthew Borja (who was also elected as speaker), Dustin Cone, Kelsey Courville, Madison Essig, Joseph Fernando, Davide Genoese-Zerbi, Shannon Glesing, Abdifatah Ibrahim, Maximilian Kim, Clement Lupton IV, Amir Mahmoud, Charles Miller, Clair Olivier, Cedric Price, Sagar Sharma, Jasper Swan and Annika Tobe.

In the executive cabinet, Devan Fishburne was confirmed as secretary of public relations, Philip Williams as undersecretary for communications and advertising, Adanna Newby as undersecretary for outreach and media relations,  Salma Hamze as undersecretary for events and inter-organizational relations, Timothy O’Shea as secretary of government and community relations; Ramir Cena as undersecretary for local government and community relations, Yasmin Jaramillo as undersecretary for state and governmental affairs, Camden Layton as undersecretary of federal governmental affairs, Abigail Dundore as undersecretary for external partnerships and liaison to Virginia21, Brendan Sullivan as secretary of university life, and Mahnoor Zafar as undersecretary for off-campus student success.

Additional appointments to the executive cabinet will be completed after a second round of confirmations at the next student senate meeting on Thursday, May 3.

Photos by Nic Macotto