Junior political science major Donny Wolford was sworn in as the new chief of staff at the public Undergraduate Student Government meeting Wednesday, Oct. 23 through a majority vote of 22 with one abstention. 

Former chief of staff Claire Weihe resigned from her position for personal reasons earlier this month, said senior history major Peter Kierstead, director of community affairs and parliamentarian, in an email.

Upon her resignation, the Nominating Committee of the student government interviewed seven applicants Wednesday, Oct. 18.

“We wanted someone who would be able to remind people to do their work without being pushy or demeaning or disrespectful and we just thought that Donny was the right fit,” Kierstead said. 

Wolford said he felt confident before stepping into the interview because he has been involved in student leadership for a few years. 

“I’ve had a great relationship with my colleagues in USG which is one of the reasons why I think they put their trust in me with this new role,” Wolford said.

During his freshman year at Kent State, Wolford served as president of the Freshman Advisory Council and the event director for Koonce Hall. 

Outside of student government, he represents Sigma Phi Epsilon as the vice president of communications and has also worked for Randi Clites, a state representative from Ravenna, as her primary campaign intern.

Prior to his appointed position as chief of staff, Wolford initially served in USG as the senator for off-campus and commuter students. He held this seat during the 2019 academic school year.

He hopes to move forward in his role as chief of staff by exemplifying a servant leader role, or to otherwise motivate people to play to their strengths. 

“I think when you work with a servant leadership style, not only do you help people feel better motivated personally, but you also help improve unity as an entire student government,” Wolford said.

During the meeting, sophomore political science major Megan Milam, who had also applied for the position, was unanimously voted and sworn in to take over Wolford’s position as senator for off-campus and commuter students. 

Milam was currently serving as a member of USG’s Allocations Committee, as well as the director of community affairs, which works closely with the senator for commuter students.

“Megan Milam had already been working on some of those issues so the committee felt that she was in the right pick to replace Donny as senator,” Kierstead said.

Finally, junior finance major Laith Tabbaa, director of business and finance, chose freshman physics major Erik Gomez to replace Milam on the Allocations Committee. Gomez was another applicant for the chief of staff position.

Gomez was unanimously voted as a member of the allocations committee.

Contact Lauryn Oglesby

 at [email protected]