After failing to be confirmed by the Student Senate’s Judiciary Committee before the meeting, a member of Marshall University’s student body executive branch was promoted to a newly created position Tuesday during the first the student senate meeting of the semester. 

Buffy Six, a senior online journalism major who served as student body press secretary during the fall 2018 semester, was promoted to senior counselor to the executives Tuesday. The Senate voted to confirm her 14-12 with three abstentions. 

Whether or not to confirm Six was a subject of debate in the Senate, as the Judiciary Committee had voted 5-3 against her confirmation, with two members of the committee abstaining. This vote was taken as a recommendation, and a roll-call vote was opened to the Senate, following an explanation of the new position and the opportunity for senators to discuss and ask questions about the position. 

Student Body President Hunter Barclay was involved in the discussion and advocated for the creation of the new position with his cabinet and the consideration of Six to fill it. Barclay expressed concern that the members of his cabinet would be overwhelmed without Six being allowed to take on the responsibilities of the new role and to provide extra assistance in projects and objectives of the cabinet. Six’s confirmation would also mean his proposed candidate Caroline Kimbro could fill the role of press secretary, if she was also confirmed by the Senate, making a full cabinet.

Concerns raised in connection to the creation of the senior counselor to the executives position, and Six’s confirmation involved questions of funding, lack of need for the position with an already nine-person cabinet and conflicts with the documents of the Student Government Association. 

Kimbro was also confirmed in the Senate. 

Jesten Richardson can be contacted at [email protected].