Interim secretary Kris Schneider was confirmed as the new secretary of Student Government during an Undergraduate Senate meeting on Oct. 2. Schneider will replace former Secretary Faith Rokowski, who left the position in September.
“If you’d ask me even two months ago if I thought I was going to be here, I would have said you’re crazy,” Schneider said to the senate.
The confirmation comes almost a month after Rosalie Black, who was nominated for the role by SG President Devontae Torriente, was denied confirmation by the senate on Sept. 4 due to her lack of experience. At the time, they also expressed their preference for Schneider to become Secretary.
Schneider joined SG last year as a freshman, working then as the deputy director of Public Communication under former Secretary Martin Valderruten. In that role, Schneider said he improved his understanding of SG communications and also had the opportunity to work with Kennedy Political Union and the Student Union Board.
“Even though the job description was social media, I was able to really get a grasp on what SG [communication] really is,” Schneider said.
During his second semester, he was asked by former SG President Sasha Gilthorpe to join the team which brought the Metro University Pass (U-Pass) to campus. During the project, Schneider worked on a campaign to inform students about the U-Pass program and represented students in meetings with Metro and the University.
“When all was said and done… a record number of students actually voted [in last spring’s U-Pass referendum],” Schneider said.“It was something like over 4,000, which is double the record high [of any] SG election. So we were really happy about that.”
Schneider worked as associate secretary under former Secretary Faith Rokowski during the summer. In that role, he oversaw collaboration between directors of the secretary’s cabinet to ensure “the most effective communications possible.”
He became interim Secretary when Rokowski stepped down on Sept. 1 and later applied to be the permanent Secretary.
The first time Schneider applied, which he said was the week of Aug. 15, he entered into a private application for the secretary position. During this ballot SG executives picked whom they wanted to apply for the position.
This first application, which the Committee on Oversight and Accountability criticized as, “poorly managed,” was the one that President Devontae Torriente used to nominate Black.
The next application was open to the public to apply to and Senators were urged to have their friends apply. This application led to Schneider being confirmed as Secretary on Oct. 2.
Since he’s had time to learn the role’s responsibilities, Schneider said he is confident about his ability to do the job.
“What (the Secretary position) means to me is not the title of being an executive, or sitting in that chair for office-hours,” Schneider said. “It’s really the opportunity to utilize this organization’s standing on campus in ways that we might not have thought of before.”
Correction appended: A previous version of this story stated that Kris Schneider was a senator in the Undergraduate Senate. He was actually the interim secretary before being confirmed as the secretary.
