The Senate of the Associated Students of New Mexico State University passed two resolutions to confirm two Associate Justices and confirmed a Chief Justice to the Judicial Branch at their meeting on Oct. 17 in the Corbett Center Senate chambers at 6 p.m.

The first justice to be confirmed was Annie Chabvuta Mzemba. She is an international student from Malawi, a small country in southeastern Africa. She has an Associates Degree in Gender and Development and worked as an intern for the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare. Mzemba is completing her pre-nursing courses and plans to enter the nursing program next year.

Mzemba said she would like to take part in decision-making. She said she would like to help those facing discrimination or abuse from other students and others, but she would mostly like to learn.

“I want to learn how American systems work,” Mzemba said.

Mzemba said she would like to remain impartial while serving for ASNMSU.

“If there’s any conflict, I shoud not take any side, just be in the middle and understand what really happened and then make a judgement,” Mzemba said.

Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, Reyaun Francisco, said he met Mzemba while tabling for ASNMSU at the beginning of the semester.

“She is one of the nicest that came up to the table,” Reyaun said. “She really showed great interest in wanting to be involved with this association.”

David Hernandez, senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, also offered his support for Mzemba.

“She has a different view on how government works in a different country, which can be important,” Hernandez said.

Mzemba was appointed unanimously.

The second Associate Justice to be appointed was Diana Estala. Estala was born and raised in Nuevo Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, Mexico. She graduated with a Political Science degree and a second in Languages from Eastern Arizona College. She held various positions for clubs including secretary for the International Club and later as president.

Estala said that after completing her Bachelor’s Degree, she would like to attend law school with a focus in International Law. She is also fluent in Spanish, French and English.

Estala said she had many plans for the judicial branch.

“I really want the judicial branch to be more involved with ASNMSU,” Estala said. “I really would like to make better use of resources.”

Estala said she has a budget already planned for the Judiciary Branch of ASNMSU.

“She’s one of the most outspoken of the judicial branch and I think that’s important because that shows she does want to interact with the senate and executive branch,” Hernandez said about Estala.

Estala was also appointed to the judicial staff unanimously.

Additionally, Avery Sanford was also confirmed as Chief Justice.

Sanford is a sophomore and is studying mechanical engineering. She is involved with Society of Women Engineers and Atomic Aggies, an intercollegiate rocket engineering competition.

Sanford said although she is an engineering major, she has interest in being involved with ASNMSU in any way she can.

David Elver, senator for the College of Engineering, said Sanford had his full support for the position.

“I’ve been very impressed with Avery from the beginning of her being an associate justice and now going on to be the possible Chief Justice,” Elver said.

There were some concerns about the relationship between Sanford and Chief of Staff, Jan Bonestroo. Bonestroo said they are close friends, but said she did not influence Sanford’s decision to run for the position, nor did it influence the decision to nominate her.

“We are friends. I don’t want to lie about that,” Bonestroo said. “But I want to be honest about her qualifications and we all really enjoyed her and we all think she’s doing a very great job.”

Bonestroo said they had actually offered the position to other candidates before Sanford, however, they had declined.

Two senators were also sworn into Senate. Guarav Jha, senator for the Graduate School and Tracy Alvidrez, senator for the College of Health and Social Services.

ASNMSU also passed a resolution that would allow money granted to organizations and clubs to go back to council instead of the ASNMSU surplus account.

The fire alarm went off during the ASNMSU meeting at approximately 10 p.m. The senate was discussing another associate justice but were skeptical about the confirmation because they had not been able to get in contact with the nominee for the past week. ASNMSU continued their meeting outside Corbett Center as the fire alarm continued to sound. However, the Senate decided to withdraw the resolution.

The Senate continued to discuss events and the meeting was adjourned at 10:20 p.m. outside of Corbett Center