Zachary Graves was sworn in Jan. 22 as vice president of USG after a three-fourths majority vote by the General Assembly.
The position became vacant Dec. 4 when the former vice president, Jessie Starkey, took over as president in place of Shannon Brown.
“I feel so humbled to have been chosen as the next vice president,” Graves, a political science major with a pre-law minor, and formerly the director of governmental affairs, said in an email to The Kent Stater. “Now that I am in the position, I hope to create internal unity, bring stability in the face of leadership changes and support our members with the incredible work they are doing to the best of my abilities.”
Starkey confirmed that Brown has no lasting affiliation with USG.
“[Presidency] is a daunting thing, but I think that it’s also an honor, and I’m excited about it,” said Starkey, a political science and history major. “I’m here to support General Assembly and help them. I think that oftentimes people get excited with presidency when I don’t think that I should be the main focus— I think it should be on the events and on all that General Assembly is doing.”
A new position
Starkey said that the vice president position was a recent addition to USG and had been created to support USG’s internal affairs and dynamics.
“I think that the focus is more towards the internal workings and trying to help with resources,” Starkey said. “There are many different senators and directors, and they have many great ideas and different events that they’re constantly doing. I’m working on giving [Graves] all my materials and helping transition him right now.”
In the policy register, the USG Kent campus by-laws state that if a position in USG becomes vacant on or before Oct. 1, the USG will hold a special election to fill the position. However, if a position becomes vacant after Oct. 1, the General Assembly will appoint someone to fill the position by a three-fourths majority vote within 15 academic class days.
Election process
Starkey and Graves went through this process to obtain their positions and will hold them until April 9, when the newly elected president and vice president will officially take up the position. Both Starkey and Graves will be graduating in May and said they do not plan to re-run.
“Our election, the process, all of that just went live,” Starkey said. “We have the candidacy agreements and stuff like that up for candidates to start working on. As I’m a senior, I will not be running again.”
USG holds elections every April, as officials only serve one-year terms. Multiple informational meetings are held throughout January and February until Feb. 24, when candidates can start openly campaigning. Debates are held throughout March.
According to the USG website, voting opens at 8 a.m. on March 25 and lasts through March 26 until 5 p.m.
Possibilities ahead
“I’m excited by all of the possibilities that this new semester brings to continue creating change and representing the student body,” Graves expressed. “Our mission is to provide for the needs and interests of students, and through our events and initiatives, we aim to do just that.”
USG will continue the tradition of funding the annual FlashFest held at the end of April.
Starkey said that Ariane Robinson, the Director of Programming, has been working hard on the event but cannot share additional details at this time.
“I think that the break gave us all a great opportunity to reset,” Starkey said. “We have SFFRs, which are students’ first funding requests— we’ve gotten many of those that we’re starting on. A lot of Senators are starting on different events and all of that, and so it should be a really good spring semester.”
Aryn Kauble is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].
