The Graduate Student and Professional Council announced the results of its 2016-2017 elections this morning.
The 2016-2017 GPSC President-elect is Zach Brooks, the Executive Vice President-elect is Onyeka Jude Udeozor and the Administrative Vice President is Jasmine Sears.
Campaigning started March 10 and continued until March 30.Elections were held on March 29 and 30. The positions include president, administrative vice president, executive vice president, as well as representative positions broken up by graduate college. All elected positions are held for one year and vacancies are filled as needed.
Brooks previously held the position of GPSC president from 2012 to 2014. In his candidacy statement this year, he called out the 2015-2016 executive board for creating a private travel fund and failing to report it to the general council. During Brooks’ time as president, the GPSC increased funding for childcare, research and travel by over $500,000.
Brooks concluded his candidacy statement by saying he wants to help GPSC refocus on it’s core goals. Brooks won by a margin of 157 votes, tallying 472 to his opponent, Sarah Netherton’s 315. Netherton was running for her second term after being the 2015-2016 GPSC president.
The elected representatives for the College of Education are Jason Harris and James Sheldon. The College of Fine Arts elected Marquez Johnson to be its GPSC representative. Johnson will be joined by College of Humanities representative, Lydia Heiss and College of Nursing elected representative, Delaney Stratton.
Three representatives were elected to represent the College of Science. Brandon Smith, Steven Petritis and Adam Meier received 65 votes each and will work together to represent the sciences on the GPSC board. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences representative election winners were Daniel Kasper, Danielle Blalock and William Cotter.
The GPSC also held elections for an Eller College of Management representative, a non-degree seeking graduate student representative and an outreach/online representative. According to the election results, these positions will be filled by Karthik Srinivasan, Jim Collins and Katie Stawn respectively.
The positions of assembly chair, treasurer, secretary and social chair will be filled by an election during a general council meeting on April 26. Meetings are open to the public and non-GPSC members are allowed to address the council at the start of every session.
The GPSC represents the graduate and professional student body at the UA. Its mission as stated in the organization’s constitution is, “to promote the academic, economic, and social aims of the graduate and professional students of the University of Arizona, to establish effective communication within the the University and with other organizations.”
The GPSC requires all elected board members and representatives to be enrolled as a graduate or professional student at the UA and to remain in good standing throughout their term. Candidates are required to submit nominating petitions with 10 signatures; however, incumbent candidates only need to submit five. Voting is open to all graduate and professional students enrolled in classes at the time of the election.
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