Missouri Southern’s Student Senate approved four new members in a crucial meeting Wednesday night in the Billingsly Student Center conference room. Student Senate Vice President Daniella Campbell, senior nursing major, stated the Senate will no longer be accepting applications after filling the four vacant seats. 

The announcement comes despite the fact they are two seats under full capacity, one of which was a recent departure due to excessive absences.  

Claire Mason, freshman nursing major, Theodore Pashia, sophomore conservation/biology major, Greg Reynaga, senior biology major, and Colby Smith, junior biology major, were all unanimously approved to their new posts after the interview process had concluded. 

“I thought it would be a little tenser, but I’m happy with the way it turned out and fortunate that I got accepted,” said Reynaga, who has owned a construction company since the age of 17.

“I really like it here [at Southern], and because I love it here so much I want to get involved and start getting my feet wet,” said Mason. “I’m a very type a personality…I can organize things like nobody’s business and to see me have a bad day is very unusual. 

Mason, a Chouteau, Okla. native, responded with a quote from former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill when asked about her leadership style. 

“Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip,” she quoted to laughter from the Senate body. 

The Senate will name each new Senator to either the Capital Improvements, Finance, or Public Relations committee shortly.

“Having so many students’ appointed says good things about our student body, they see things that they want to improve on campus and that there looking to get involved,” said Student Senate President Kyle Prisock. “It will be an adjustment that they will go through. Forming, storming, norming, and performing so they’ll adjust and find where they work best and which personalities they work best with.”

In other news, current Student Senator Joshua Ferry, freshman pre-med/biology major was named the chairman of the Capital Improvements Committee. Ferry, who began his term as Senator Oct. 7, 2015, and has served on the committee since.