UF’s Student Senate unanimously elected Jackie Phillips as the new Senate president Tuesday night.
Phillips (Impact, Jennings), the former information and communications committee chair, was the sole nominee for the position during the night’s second back-to- back meeting.
“As Senate president, I would bring the same inclusive and collaborative mentality in all that I do,” she said.
Trevor Schaettle (Impact, District A), the former judiciary committee chair, was unanimously approved as the new Senate pro-tempore. No one else was nominated for the position.
During the first meeting, UF Supervisor of Elections Eric Hobbs announced there were no election complaints led during the Spring election.
“It shows that our student leaders show great poise,” he said.
Senators unanimously approved the Spring election results, during which Impact took 48 seats, and the other two went to independent graduate candidate Pulkit Kumar Dhir and write-in dentistry candidate Galia Fakhri-Medrano.
During the second meeting’s public debate, Sen. Zachariah Chou (Independent, Infinity) said remote online voting would’ve passed this election by a higher percentage than last year if the UF Supreme Court had not ruled to count abstention votes as “no” votes.
“It’s not normal for us to do this,” he said. “Online voting would’ve been passed again if it wasn’t for the current constitutional crisis."
Student Body President-Elect Smith Meyers, who served as Senate President before Phillips was approved, gave his goodbye speech during the first meeting, saying it’s important for senators to reach across the aisle and treat people who have different opinions with respect.
“We are all on the same team and fighting the same fight,” he said. “You can disagree with some- one and still love them.”
During former Senate Pro-Tempore Austin Champoux’s goodbye speech, he said he wore the same orange-and-navy striped tie he wore to his first Senate meeting.
He advised senators not to sacrifice friendships for the sake of getting too wrapped up in SG politics. To end his speech, he gave out hand-written letters to a group of his closest friends and joined everyone in doing a Gator Chomp.
“I can’t tell you how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye very hard,” he said.
Contact Paige Fry at pfry@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @paigexfry
Jackie Phillips is sworn in as president of the Student Senate on Tuesday. Phillips ran unopposed for the position.
