Last semester, Joe Kluever stepped down as Student Senate president and Joe Sigwarth took his place.

After a series of interviews with three other candidates, Student Senate chose Colton Hackett to become the new Student Senate vice president.

Hackett, a junior political science and criminal justice double-major, hopes to attend law school after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

In regards to Hackett’s career aspirations, he plans to work in white collar crime prosecution and eventually become a judge.

Hackett joined Student Senate during the fall of his sophomore year.

Last year, Hackett was a regular senator for the college of Liberal Arts and Education, and this year he became the director of Legislative Affairs, before accepting the position of vice president.

Hackett decided to run for Student Senate vice president because he believed that the more involved he became, the more responsibility he would receive and that made it a much more enjoyable experience for him.

“Colton had the most experience by far, and he was best fit with the criteria we had, partially because he had already sat as Legislative Affairs director,” Sigwarth said. “He also had credibility with the state.”

Also, Hackett is part of the Inter-Governmental Relations Committee within the UW System.

He works with the legislator on behalf of the students in order to determine why certain bills have or have not been passed.

“Colton is very organized and very analytical, both of which are incredibly important,” Sigwarth said. “He has the necessary ability to take care of the emails, as well as personal stuff, and together, those form about 90 percent of the job.”

Hackett believes that being analytical, or not quickly jumping to conclusions, and having strong skills in human relations and communication are few of his strengths that will help him as vice president.

He will have to work on time management, but he does not feel that it will be an issue in the future.

Aside from Student Senate, Hackett also works for the Admissions Office, and he is a PAL for Intro to American Government.

Hackett’s main goals as vice president are to work on the Student Bill of Rights, and endure a smooth transition from Kluever and Sigwarth, to Sigwarth and Hackett.

The biggest project that Sigwarth and Hackett will work on together this semester is updating the Student Bill of Rights, since it has not been updated in 20 years.

This means that the bill is not protecting students as often and effectively as it should at this time.

Student Senate is working on creating set guidelines and policies make expectations and responsibilities clearer and more concise.

Individually, Hackett is working with other schools to pass a legislative bill that would affect the criminal justice program.