Next year’s student body president Anagha Kikkeri and vice president Winston Hung will be sworn in over Zoom next Tuesday.
Kikkeri and Hung were elected last month, and Student Government plans to transition to their administration remotely during the upcoming assembly meeting Tuesday.
“(The transition) is falling in an untraditional pattern, but we’re in a new time and we can’t follow the traditional framework of the past,” government junior Kikkeri said. “We’ll still be able to do what we have done as Student Government in the past, but it’s going to take a learning curve at the beginning.”
Hung, a chemical engineering and finance junior, and Kikkeri said SG delayed executive board applications and interviews for positions, such as chief of staff and financial director, so people could adjust to recent changes the University and students have made in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was really important for us to respect that everyone was going through such a significant transition right now,” Kikkeri said. “Students have things that are more important than Student Government applications going on at home, so that’s why we really pushed it back to give people the space to do that.
Current student body president Camron Goodman and vice president Amie Jean held their last assembly meeting on March 31.
Hung said some legislation that was not voted on in the last session will be carried over to the new administration. He said it is important to them to keep engagement high while everyone is in different places.
“The best way to accommodate is to listen to students, especially since issues surrounding student life are more prevalent than ever,” Hung said. “We want to make sure that we can hear them and have a channel for that.”
Hung said even though the situation is not ideal, he and Kikkeri are going to try to make the best impact they can.
Kikkeri said although their original plans have now changed because of the coronavirus, SG will make it work.
“At the end of the day, we will be okay because we have (a) very supportive staff, and Student Government itself will be OK,” Kikkeri said. “We just want to make sure that students who were impacted by this still have the opportunity to be able to join Student Government.”
Kikkeri said their goal is to support the student body during this time.
“We want to offer some hope for people, too,” Kikkeri said. “We encourage people to come to us to let us know how we can support them, too, during this time.”
