The Undergraduate Student Government voted to establish the vice president role in replacement of the administrative assistant during their first meeting of the semester.

With a vote of 20 in favor and one opposed, there will be an implementation of a vice president during the 2023-2024 academic year. This is in order to achieve more effectiveness and efficiency for the next term, according to the Vice President Proposal. The Student Body President will appoint the vice president at the same time as other positions, with potential plans of it becoming an elected position in the future.

“If there was one thing we can do right now to really make a difference for next year, it was to add that vice president position,” Student Body President Jenna Gilbreath said. “We feel that we’ll be able to use three people in our Office of the President more effectively by better defining expectations.”

Along with this new position being created, USG appointed members to the following roles:

• Grace Schick as parliamentary assistant
• Olivia Eader as under secretary
• Grace Schick, Kunal Kashyap, Chloe Eaglowski, Isaac Halaszi, Deandra Wright and Colleen Dinan as the election commission
• Alice Tun as allocations associate

The Student Dance Education Organization’s appeal for $10,000 assistance in funding for the virtual concert was rejected again. The SDEO had made this request previously, which was rejected by the Allocations Committee. They appealed that rejection and that is why USG voted on it at their meeting. The funding was planned to be used to pay two choreographers $1,500 each and the video production company, Film Forge, $7,000 to produce the livestream video of the event.

Plans for The Week of Kindness, an event week centered around student wellbeing, mental health and acts of kindness, are being finalized. The week will take place from Feb. 27 to March 3.

Candidate applications to run for the 2023-2024 USG positions opened on Jan. 25 and will close at 5 p.m. on Feb. 23.

The next public USG meeting will be held in the Student Governance Chambers at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8.

Jillian Schrift is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].