The first Boca House of Representatives meeting this semester saw its speaker of the house re-elected, as well as 45 members sworn in this past Friday.

Speaker of the House Noah Goldberg, who served during the summer semester, was sworn in by a 35-8 vote. He ran against finance major and Rep. Edward Perez, who bid to be vice president during this year’s spring elections. The speaker oversees House meetings and ensures proper behavior is followed according to the Student Government Constitution.

The two candidates shared their goals for FAU before the House voted.

Goldberg said, “As speaker of the house, I want to continue transparency between Student Government and students.”

He added that he wants to have cameras installed in every building and parking lot on campus.

“There are no cameras in any of our parking lots,” he said. “It is a very serious thing we need.”

Perez, who has been in the House since November 2017, spoke about what he wanted for the House if elected.

“Us here in the House of Representatives, we need to make more change on campus. We need to go out there and actually talk to people,” he said, as each House member represents about 500 students. With 45 members sworn in Friday, that means 22,500 of FAU’s 29,594 students are represented. To fully represent the student body, the House would need 59 members; there can be no more than 61.  

Speaker pro tempore nominations were held as well, a position that acts as a vice president for the speaker of the House.

These nominations included House members Jared Stern, Matthew McClure, Kitana Thomas, and Onyinyechi Okpala. Shane Isaacson and Christine Smith were also nominated, but later withdrew.

Gabriella Miernik and Edward Perez were nominated but declined to go through the interview process, which means they can’t be considered for speaker pro tempore.

The position will be decided upon at the next House meeting as well as the rest of the cabinet positions, which include secretary, parliamentarian, Campus Action Committee chair, Ways and Means Committee chair, and Rules and Policies Committee chair.

The meeting will be held Nov. 2 at 3:30 p.m. in the Student Union House Chambers.

Sophie Siegel is a staff writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected].