Photo by Kendall Bulkiewicz | The Crow’s Nest.
By Alisha Durosier
University of South Florida general elections for student government (SG) brought 5,260 students to the polls, ushering in a new campus governor and lt. governors, along with new members of campus council and senate.
Biology freshman David Nguyen and political science freshman Elise Prophete were elected as the St. Petersburg campus’ governor and lt. governor respectively. The pair ran uncontested and received a total of 199 votes.
As general elections occur every year, SG positions reopen, allowing new students to come in, current students to run for other seats or reapply for positions they already occupy.
Governor and lt. governor lead their respective campuses’ SG. As leaders of the executive branch, they represent the student body with the help of their executive cabinet who manage various initiatives of SG.
The positions are overseen by the USF student body president and vice president who head and represent SG and the student body of all three USF campuses.
There were four presidential tickets this year.
Computer science junior Suryakanth Prasad Gottipati and computer and informations senior Sumit Subhash Jadhav lead the race with 1,702 votes.
Political science and international studies sophomore Alexa Matos and Computer Science sophomore Rithvick Lee followed with 1,135 votes.
Business management junior Conor Avila and statistics and quantitative economics and econometrics junior Tianyi Li Bueso received 995 votes and health sciences sophmore Jordan McCann and psychology sophomore Kaitlyn Rodriguez received none.
The presidential election results are currently unconfirmed due to pending grievances that were submitted against some of the candidates.
According to the deputy supervisor of elections Alyvia Hallock, when a grievance is submitted against a candidate, they’ve been accused of breaking one or multiple consolidated statutes.
“There has to be a Supreme Court trial with the SG justices where they will decide if they broke a statute or not and that could change the results of the election,” Hallock said.
There are three types of grievances and a point system that determines if a candidate is removed from an election.
A level one grievance is two points. Instead of a trial a level one grievance is resolved with a meeting with the Election Results Commission (ERC). A level two grievance is five points and a level three grievance is 10 and are resolved by trials.
“If a candidate acquires 10 points, they are removed from the election, so they can get five level one grievances, two level two grievances and one level three grievance to be removed from the election,” Hallock said.
USF St. Petersburg’s elected senators include graphic arts and sustainability studies freshman Tori Ursey who received 126 votes, freshman Madailynn Cengeri who received 115 and freshman Liv Doura who received 114.
Every year committees review various titles and statutes to ensure that they up to date.
“Senate deals with policy,” Hallock said. “They can also suggest resolutions and statutes that they think should be implemented into policy for student government.”
USF St. Petersburg SG are allowed five senators.
Elected campus council members include engineering junior Nathanjah Carty who received 136 votes, freshman Brianna Gutierrez who received 122, digital communications and multimedia journalism freshman Miguel Rios who received 119 and criminology and political science freshman Gabriel Simpson who received 101.
Campus Council oversees budgeting.
“One of their main roles is to allocate the funding for different clubs,” Hallock said.
When student organizations submit interim or annual budget requests, campus council determines if the organizations’ requests are approved or not.
USF St. Petersburg SG are allowed 9 campus council members.
SG is currently holding a special election to fill the vacant spots within the senate and campus council.
- Applications close: April 12th at 11:59 PM
- Campaigning begins: April 15th at 12:01 AM
- Voting begins: April 22nd at 12:01 AM
- Voting ends: April 23rd at 11:59 PM
