By Taylor Muller
Lucas Seiler and Buey Ruet were formally installed as president/regent and vice president, respectively, during a swearing-in ceremony held on Jan. 15 in the Milo Bail Student Center Ballroom.”We have been blessed with great student leadership on this campus,” Chancellor John Christensen said during the ceremony. “I would like to thank the student government officers and membership from last year for doing the great job that they did in terms of carrying the student voice to all of us in administration.”
Associate Executive Vice President and Provost Donal Burns administered the oath of office to Seiler, while Legislative and Public Relations Officer Meg Mandy swore in Ruet.
“This is always, for me, a special occasion,” Burns said. “The beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new relationship with the student regent of UNO.”
Seiler is a junior, pursuing a degree in Bio-informatics with a minor in Spanish. Ruet is a senior, pursuing a degree in political science and economics.
During the ceremony the UNO Alumni Association also presented Seiler and Ruet with scholarships.
“We’d be foolish to not invest in our students,” said Alumni Association President and Chief Executive Officer Lee Denker. “All of our alumni, all 90,000 were students on this campus and all 15,000 students on this campus, we hope, will become alums. We’re all in this together.”
Both Seiler and Ruet said student involvement and recycling were at the forefront of the issues they would address on campus. Ruet said the opportunity to learn from different cultures, which was key to his experiences, was something they would support as the university’s student representatives.
“Biggest thing we want to do, looking at the environment, bring recycling initiatives to campus,” he said. “We also want to integrate [the] international body into the student body, learning from their cultures, teaching about our cultures.”
Seiler said he appreciated the chance to give back to his university and his peers.
“I’m excited for the opportunity that I have to represent this university, because frankly, I really love UNO,” he said. “I have enjoyed the last two and half years that I have spent here, and I’m content to call myself a Maverick.”
Seiler’s Oath of Office:
“I, Lucas Seiler, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of Nebraska and will faithfully discharge the duties of student regent of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, according to the best of my abilities and that at the election at which I was chosen to fill said office I have not improperly influenced, in any way, the vote of any elector and have not accepted, nor will I accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or other valuable thing from any corporation, company or person or any promise of office for any official act or influence.
