Two student senators were given Senator of the Semester and Senator of the Year awards as other senators and members on the executive board said their senate “goodbyes” at its last meeting of the semester Wednesday night.

Ethan Osborne, a current senator and chair of the student internal affairs committee, received the Senator of the Year award and Carson Gordon, a current senator who will return in the fall as the student vice president of academic affairs, received Senator of the Semester.

They were given the awards because of their work as committee chairs.

Osbourne said he did not expect to win, but at the same time, he wanted to.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by your peers for anything,” he said.

Osbourne said he will be returning in the fall with plans to continue being the committee chair for internal affairs, but since he will be a resident assistant he will have to “take a step back.”

He said his position and role as internal affairs committee chair was to help student senators bond with one another and take a weight off their shoulders.

“I took that approach rather than being serious because people don’t appreciate people who are serious all the time,” he said. “All the other parts of this meeting are serious and people can let down their guard a little and laugh.”

Will Outzen, the current student speaker of the senate, also received an award for being speaker of the senate for the entire year.

Outzen will not be returning to the senate next semester because of prior obligations with ROTC but said he loved what he did with it.

“I never imagined that I’d be on student government, much less speaker of the senate,” he said.

“It wasn’t my intention, it just kind of happened.”

With Outzen not returning as speaker, and since none of the current student senators approached Student Body President Luke Young to inquire about the position, Zac Cohen, who will be the executive vice president, is going to have to take up another role as speaker for the fall.

Outzen said about seven or eight senators will be returning in the fall as well.

Even though there will only be a few senators returning next semester, the senate will adjust and “overcome” the challenge, he said.

“When I first started we had to have special elections because people didn’t come back, and as you can see, the senate is still alive,” Outzen said.

Student Body President Luke Young gave a farewell speech and told senators to come in with a clear mission, strategies and to finish the goals they set next semester.

“There’s a great amount of potential for this school and this organization,” Young said. “But potential with no motivation, strategy or goals is just a dream and nothing more.” 

Analicia Haynes can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].