The Tempe Undergraduate Student Government Senate confirmed a new Vice President of Policy on Tuesday night.
Political science junior Jordan Tygh replaced interdisciplinary studies junior Brendan Pantilione, who was elected as part of USG Tempe President Mark Naufel's uncontested ticket last April.
Tygh was offered the position of the first USG Downtown Vice President of Policy in 2011 before moving to the Tempe campus.
"It's the same job, so I felt qualified on that end," he said.
Tygh has interned for Sen. John McCain, Rep. David Schweikert and worked on campaigns for California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
He said he hopes to use his connections to bring speakers to ASU during the semester.
"I would like to have people from the left side of the aisle, the right side of the aisle, all different careers," Tygh said.
Another goal of his is to work to speed up the distribution of parity funding. After years of UA receiving significantly more per student than NAU or ASU, the Arizona Board of Regents and Gov. Jan Brewer approved a five-year plan to bring ASU and NAU to the same per-student funding levels as UA.
Naufel said in an email that Tygh's experience with Republican campaigns is beneficial for student lobbying.
"We believe that because of this he will be effective in lobbying crucial Republican legislators down at the State Capitol on issues pertaining to students," he said. " I have enormous trust in Jordan, and our student government knows that he will lobby for the issues that the student Senate supports. "
The student government began seeking applicants for the position at the beginning of the semester, after Pantilione resigned to work on opening a charter school in South Phoenix.
Clarification: Jordan Tygh did not serve as Vice President of Policy for the Downtown campus, as he resigned before being officially appointed by the USGD Senate.
