Ian Armstrong is the new president elect for Graduate Student Senate, replacing current president Eddie Smith.
Following the Ohio University Student Senate election announcement Wednesday night, the Graduate Student Senate results have been tallied, with members of The Five Point Plan sweeping the election with little contest.
Members of the next year's executive committee were all elected as part of the Five Point Plan, the sole ticket to run in this year’s election.
Ian Armstrong, who currently serves as academic affairs commissioner, was elected president. Alex Burke was elected vice president of administration, Angela Chapman was elected vice president of communications and Ken Ward was elected vice president of legislative affairs.
“It was heartening to see so many graduate students supporting the Five Point Plan and our vision for Graduate Student Senate,” Armstrong said. “We are very excited to extend the work we began this year into next fall.”
The announcement follows a confusing evening for some of the candidates, who were expecting the results to be released following those of Student Senate on Wednesday night. Recently elected Board of Elections chair Mitchell Smith said he was told the results were to be announced Thursday.
“I wasn’t aware that there was a meeting last night,” Smith said. “I had March 31 at 7 p.m. penciled in on my calendar and I planned to be there … it was just a clear mix-up on the time and date.”
A screenshot from the online candidate application form, provided by Smith, states that winners were to be announced on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Baker Center.
Other graduate students were elected to the following positions in this year's election:
- Senator for the College of International Studies: Gloria Aidoo-Frimpong
- Senator for the College of Arts and Sciences: Kevin Pomorski
- Senator for the College of Engineering: Nikhil Dhinagar
- Senator for Scripps College of Communication: Nune Grigoryan
- Senator for the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs: Zebulon Martin
With the exception of Aidoo-Frimpong, all of the elected senators who ran were part of The Five Point Plan ticket.
“We are all thankful for the hard work current GSS President Eddie Smith has done this year to promote graduate student interests across campus and with the administration,” Armstrong said. “Now it’s time for us to address those tough issues grad students face, such as rising health care costs, and make sure Ohio University is doing everything it can to support its graduate students.”
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Armstrong said that, upon taking office, he hopes to focus on the implementation of The Five Point Plan immediately.
The plan focuses on five core issues in the graduate student community: transparency from OU's administration, providing an outlet for graduate students to voice concerns, improving community and university relations, creating a stronger graduate student community and improving health and safety conditions.
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