At a glance: Student government elections results
Walter Hall at Ohio University in Athens. Photo by Sarah Donaldson.
The Ohio University Student Senate and Graduate Student Senate (GSS) hosted their annual elections during March and April for the upcoming 2021-2022 academic year.
Both student government bodies had unusual election years. The GSS treasurer election went into a run-off, while two competing tickets ran for executive positions on Student Senate, making it the first contested election since the 2017-2018 academic year.
Student Senate
Two opposing tickets — Athens Advocacy and Build Together — ran for executive positions. The results were posted on Twitter on April 6.
In the case of a candidate being elected to more than one seat, the Student Senate Judicial Panel decided to allow candidates to choose the position they would like to have for the upcoming academic year.
Eliza Ivan of Athens Advocacy and Maxeen Ramlo of Build Together ran for Student Senate president. The election was very close, with Ivan winning the election over Ramlo by 7 votes, according to a report by The New Political.
In the race for Student Senate vice president, three candidates ran: Elaina Tartal of Athens Advocacy; Richard Danylo, an independent candidate endorsed by Build Together and Brogan Speraw, who ran as an Independent. Tartal was elected with 408 votes. Danylo received 252 votes and Speraw received 108 votes.
Similar to the vice presidential race, three candidates ran for treasurer: Simar Kalkat of Build Together, Emily Ertle of Athens Advocacy and Sarah Packard, who ran as an Independent. Kalkat will be the next treasurer of Student Senate, receiving 312 votes. Ertle received 280 votes and Packard received 179 votes.
Build Together and Athens Advocacy competed head-to-head in the at-large senate elections as well. Build Together’s Molly Pennington and Athens Advocacy’s Celine Freetage were both elected to an at-large senate seat. Chandler Jent and Tyce Patt were also elected.
In the elections for the Senate Appropriations Commission (SAC) Representatives, Liz Behage of Build Together, Sam Carryer, Jent, Speraw, Patt, Ivan and Danylo received the required amount of votes to fill the position.
Noah Kiger of Build Together received enough votes to be elected as an off-campus senator or as a senator for the Center of International Studies. Freetage also received enough votes to become an off-campus senator. In the residential senator race, Deika Ahmed of Build Together and Jent received enough votes to hold the position.
In the elections to be a senator from the different Ohio University colleges, the results were as follows:
Russ College of Engineering and Technology: Richard Danylo
College of Arts and Sciences: Andrew Cornelison
College of Business: Tyce Albert Patt
Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education: Mallor Lovell
Honors Tutorial College: Haley Janoski
Graduate Student Senate
The executive positions of president, vice president and treasurer of GSS were up for election. The general election ran from March 17 to March 24.
Current GSS President Kaelyn Ferris was re-elected as president. LGBT Commissioner Remington Burwell was elected as vice president of GSS, replacing outgoing GSS Vice President Amal Shimir. Both Ferris and Burwell ran unopposed.
Three candidates ran for the position of GSS Treasurer: Nicholas Whitticar, department representative for Translational Biomedical Sciences; Charlotte Yang, Graduate College Senator, and Joseph Elikem Kofi Ziorklui.
In the March 30 general body meeting, the GSS election committee announced that the treasurer race would be moving to a run-off between Yang and Kofi Ziorklui. The results of the run-off were announced on April 13, and Kofi Ziorklui was elected treasurer for the upcoming academic year. Kofi Ziorklui will be replacing outgoing Treasurer Amid Vahedi.
