The Graduate and Professional Student Council held its annual executive board and Board of Trustee committee elections during its meeting Monday night.
The candidates for each executive position were allotted time for a speech, followed by several minutes of questioning and open discussion by the General Assembly, which was then given the option to motion for a closed discussion open only to GPSC voting members.
William LeFew, a third-year applied mathematics doctoral student, won the position of GPSC president over incumbent candidate Heather Dean, a sixth-year student in neurobiology.
“GPSC is just beginning to explore its potential,” LeFew said in his statement. “GPSC needs a robust internal structure for external interaction.”
LeFew, who has spent the past year as the student life co-chair for GPSC, mentioned that the job has brought him valuable connections with the administration as well as the graduate and professional schools. He also said this is an ideal time to work as GPSC president because, during his fourth year as a doctoral student, he will be focusing mainly on individual research and will have flexibility and more time to put into GPSC matters.
“My main question is, how are we going to move forward? We need a face for the organization and to get our foot in the door,” LeFew said about GPSC’s visibility. He also said he aims to bridge the gap between the organization and the individual graduate and professional student bodies by making each GPSC member accountable for constituency-based feedback.
The president is the chief spokesperson of the council and is the official liaison between the council and all outside bodies. The president’s main objective is to implement annual goals and strategies for the council.
Dean, who will enter her final year of graduate school in the fall, said: “I think it is going to be a great year. Bill will do an awesome job. It will also give me a chance to work on the many things I have had an interest in.” She mentioned that these include mentoring, women’s and international programs.
Dean also ran for vice president, but Lettye Smith, a third-year student in the Divinity School, won the position. The vice president oversees all internal affairs of the council, acting as chair and setting the agenda for all meetings of the General Assembly and the Executive Board.
For both the presidential and vice presidential races, GPSC closed discussion to non-voting members.
Smith said her goals were to increase visibility of graduate and professional students on campus and maximize the potential of the executive board.
Scott Smith and Audrey Ellerbee ran unopposed for the positions of treasurer and executive secretary, respectively. Smith is a first-year M.B.A. student, and Ellerbee is a first-year graduate student in biomedical engineering.
The treasurer is responsible for the proper handling of all funds, as well as preparing and submitting the annual budget to the council.
The secretary records the proceedings of all meetings and is responsible for maintaining an archive of all internal documents.
Other election results:
Attorney General: Kelly DeMeester
Community Affairs Coordinator: Heather Dean
Communications Coordinator: Lara Oliver
Student Group Liaison: Elizabeth Irish
Student Life Co-Chairs: Jenny Woodruff, Stela Plaku
Ombudsperson: Megan McCrudden
Board of Trustee Business and Finance Committee: Todd Schwarzinger, Fritz Porter
Board of Trustee Buildings and Grounds Committee: Michael Wolosin, Sara Becker
Board of Trustee Academic Affairs Committee: Nathan Kundtz, Audrey Ellerbee
Board of Trustee Student Affairs Committee: Heather Dean, Rachel Lovingood
Board of Trustee Medical Center Affairs Committee: Justin Klein
Board of Trustee Institutional Advancement Committee: Jaime Baim
Most of the races were contested. Dean, the current president, said she was excited to see the amount of interest and numbers of candidates running for GPSC officer and Board of Trustee member positions. She said GPSC has had trouble getting enough people to run in past years, and that these elections prove how much the organization has grown.
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