Graduate Student Senate presidential candidate Molly Yanity has announced she will no longer be running in next week’s election.
Tynita White, currently a GSS commissioner for African American Affairs, will now be running for president. White and Yanity will simply be swapping positions, with Yanity now running for Vice President for Administration and Finance.
“I’m definitely really interested in seeing graduate student senate succeed,” GSS President Tracy Kelly said. “I think that Tynita will do a wonderful job. She has background organizational presidency and she will make wonderful contributions.”
Both are members of the PROUD party, which is running uncontested in this year’s GSS election. The changes to the ticket were filed Tuesday morning with Board of Elections Chair John Hummel.
Yanity’s decision stems from a mix-up with graduate student assistantship stipends.
Yanity, a Ph.D. candidate for journalism, would not have been able to serve as president without receiving a significant cut in her graduate assistant stipend from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism because the presidential position is also a paid graduate student assistantship.
“We figured out who would be best to serve in this position financially, so this is a spot for Tynita now,” Yanity said.
White agreed to switch positions with Yanity after further discussion within the PROUD party and the graduate college.
“This was something that we discussed with the rest of the body, and the graduate college thought that this would be the best solution,” White said.
White will be taking on specific presidential responsibilities for GSS such as attending Board of Trustee meetings. The PROUD party, however, is looking to work as a team as they transition into their GSS offices.
“I’m still going to be right behind her getting every update as it happens,” Yanity said. “This is probably how it was going to be one way or another. We were going to be serving as a team.”
White is working towards her Masters in Public Administration.
She has worked closely with GSS members and Kelly to assess the needs of multicultural graduate students this year. Last quarter, White held a multicultural exchange, where graduate students expressed how they felt their specific needs could be better acknowledged by the university.
The feedback was presented to representatives in the graduate college for review.
“I am looking forward to reaching out to the Graduate Student Senate body and making changes for them,” White said.
hm156809@ohiou.edu
