The Student Senate approved two new intern positions for the Communications Commission and Student Organization Commission (SOC) at Monday’s meeting.

Ivan San, the Communications Commission director and a fourth-year biology student, introduced bill 67-B-1: Creation and Amendment of Communications Commission and Student Organizations Commission Intern Positions at the previous meeting on Monday, Sep. 11.

Bill 67-B-1 passed the senate unanimously with a vote of 34-0-2.

Ben Johnson, the Finance Commission director and a fourth-year accounting and finance student, said the Communications Commission has three intern positions allocated in its budget and SOC will be reallocating unspent funding from the last session to pay its new intern.

According to Johnson, commission interns get paid a stipend equivalent to one-fourth of their tuition.

“I think this is a great addition to senate. Ivan will have a little less on his plate and everything will get done quicker,” Johnson said. 

San said the Communications Commission currently has a graphics design intern and an event intern, but the new position would primarily focus on the senate’s digital outreach.

“The third intern is basically to help all the other commissions with stuff that isn’t events or graphic design,” San said. “This could be distributing actual materials around campus. This could be helping manage their social media pages, making use of Blugold Connect+ and the website.”

According to San, the Communications Commission interns are utilized by the entire senate and the additional intern will ensure commissions get the support they deserve.

San also said the new intern will help the commission have more time for its initiatives, like Motivation Mondays, working with the Eau Claire City-County Health Department to help students with landlord issues and the Party Registry System.

Bradford Heap, the SOC director and a third-year healthcare administration student, said there were projects the commission wasn’t able to achieve last session because of time constraints.

“There were a lot of different projects and ambitious ideas I had last year that I just didn’t have the time flexibility to achieve, particularly when it comes to social media,” Heap said. “I think student organizations live on social media and it’s very important to have that engagement.”

Heap said the intern will help him streamline the segregated fees process and plan leadership events to improve experiences for students in student organizations.

“So now having that extra manpower will really be great for the commission and I’m really excited to see where we can take it in the future,” Heap said.

Mei Bean, the Intergovernmental Affairs Commission Director and a second-year sociology student, said she needed materials from the Communications Commission for a project she worked on this summer, but it had to be postponed because the commission was overloaded.

“I think them having (another) intern would really help Ivan out, because as another director who has two interns, I can say that having their help has really helped me to stay on task with my commission this year and get things done that have to get done instead of doing busy work,” Bean said.

Heap said applications for both intern positions are available on the senate’s Blugold Connect+ page and encouraged students to apply.

“You don’t have to be a communications major to join us — I’m a biology major on the pre-med track. We don’t do suits or politics, we just basically think about what we want to give back to students,” San said. “If anyone is interested in giving back to students, they can talk to us.”

Kasper can be reached at [email protected].