As soon as he was confirmed to be ASMSU’s chief of staff last Tuesday, Nimri Niemchak wanted to loosen the collar on his new position.
But the undergraduate student government’s decision to appoint Niemchak was not official right away. In fact, Niemchak didn’t even have a key to the door of his new office until Friday.
The former ASMSU assistant director of public relations was appointed as chief of staff by ASMSU’s Student Assembly last Thursday. Niemchak was voted in by the Academic Assembly on Tuesday.
With his new task in hand, the new chief of staff feels he’s ready to tackle the responsibilities that lie ahead.
Duties for the one-year position - which pays $1,620 - include overseeing the student government’s executive office and supervising operations conducted by the Academic and Student assemblies.
“The first step is to get everybody on the same page,” Niemchak said after mentioning ASMSU has not had a staff meeting in nearly three weeks.
In turn, though, Niemchak is looking to eliminate the necessity of weekly meetings.
“You have got to figure out ways to work and communicate within the office without having meetings every week,” he said. “There has to be a system established.”
Among Niemchak’s other ambitions is to feature less internal legislation by ASMSU.
“The internal bills really have to stop,” he said. “It makes students a lot happier to see us (outside the office) than for us to waste time to sit up here and write a constitution.
“You’re going to have problems with anything you write. Nothing is going to be perfect.”
Niemchak was one of the four candidates interviewed Monday by a chief of staff selection committee that consisted of ASMSU staff members as well as representatives from the Academic and Student Assemblies.
One official on the selection committee said all candidates were impressive.
“All the candidates were well-spoken,” said Kendall Sykes, ASMSU student assembly chairperson. “Any one of them would have made a perfect chief of staff.”
ASMSU policy prevents committee members from discussing individual candidates.
Niemchak’s appointment fills the vacancy left by Jack Teasdale, who resigned Oct. 10.
“He tried to do everything himself,” Niemchak said. “Sure, you got to get in there and work, but you got to let things go too. You can’t have your hands in everything because you are not going to be able to control everything.”
