Costa elected as SGA speaker of the senate

Taylor Harrison

The Student Government Association has filled another position for next year — speaker of the senate.

Bowling Green sophomore Christopher Costa, currently an SGA senator, will be SGA’s next speaker of the senate after being elected at Tuesday night’s meeting. The other nominated candidates were junior Poorvie Patel of Bowling Green,a also a senator, and Smiths Grove freshman Mallory Treece, public relations committee head.

The candidates were nominated and voted on at the meeting.

Costa will be replacing Rochester, Mi., senior Kaylee Egerer, the current speaker of the senate.

Costa said he originally looked into the position about a month or two ago when people started talking about SGA elections.

“I found the position very interesting, so I decided to take a chance and run,” Costa said.

Egerer said Costa talked to her about the position before the meeting.

“I have full faith in Chris,” Egerer said. “As I said, he’s come to me multiple times about the position, and I was very excited to have him actually as a part of the student government.”

Costa said Egerer has been helpful when he’s come to her to discuss the speaker of the senate position.

“Kaylee’s been fantastic with anything that I’ve ever asked her or needed from her,” Costa said. “So I think it’s going to be a smooth transition into the fall, and I think everything’s going to work out okay.”

Costa emphasized the importance of remaining neutral when holding this position.

“That’s one of the things that’s most important to me, is impartiality, and I really hope to do a good job at bringing that to the speaker position,” Costa said.

Egerer agreed that neutrality is incredibly important.

“Like everybody said, it could be a glance, your body language, anything that could sway the senate, so you obviously always need to be very careful with the way you present yourself on the issues,” Egerer said. “You need to remain neutral.”

Another part of the job is being familiar with the bylaws and parliamentary procedure. Costa said he has looked into the bylaws and will continue to do that more before the fall semester.

As far as parliamentary procedure goes, Costa said he knows the basics.

“I definitely will employ Kaylee’s tactic of having a parliamentarian on hand for sure,” Costa said. “I know the basics… but I plan on learning a lot more before the fall.”

Nicki Seay, the current parliamentarian, said she enjoyed the position.

“It was a great way to get involved,” Seay said.

Since Seay has been elected as a senator for the upcoming year, the by-laws prevent her from simultaneously serving as parliamentarian.

Egerer also said that Costa has been around parliamentary procedure enough that he understands it.  

“I know that he’s very good with studying up,” Egerer said. “Before he had even approached me, he’d read the bylaws and everything that being the speaker of the senate entails, so I think that he’ll do very well as far as parliamentary procedure.”

Egerer said it will also benefit Costa that he has sat through senate meetings not only as a senator but also as a student before he was elected.