Students ‘take the Isi way’

After a heated campaign season, Student Senate ended the semester by swearing in senators for the fall 2021 term.

 Isioma Akwanamnye, senior of Lagos, Nigeria, claimed victory over Sullivan Jones, sophomore of Papillion, in the highly anticipated Student Senate presidential election. 

“First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone that voted,” Akwanamnye said. “I know it has been a rocky couple of weeks but I’m just glad we have it all over and sorted out.” 

A total of 413 students casted a vote in the election according to Chief Justice Nathan Cronin, junior of Hay Springs. 

 Abigail Klammer, junior of Juanita, claimed reelection as vice president.  

The presidency and vice presidency were not the only positions up for grabs. Several senatorial positions were filled for the upcoming semester. 

 Because these positions were uncontested, they were not put on the election ballot. Siddhant Shelke, junior of McKinney, Texas, Olivia Bryant, sophomore of Anselmo, Makenna Metzler, junior of Otis, Colorado, were sworn in as senators-at-large, and Laura Clay was sworn in as a Liberal Arts senator. 

Shelke was also sworn in as the new vice president of finance.  

Determined to join the Student Senate, Jones went for what he calls “the next best thing” to fill the second Liberal Arts senator position. Three senators voted in favor for Jones and three voted against him. With a tie-breaking vote from Klammer, Jones was sworn in. 

“I wanted to still represent students of CSC,” Jones said.  “I have just as much voice as a senator as I would president.” 

Also petitioning, was Senator Kelsey Crock, senior of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Due to error, she did not run for reelection but still wanted to fill her position next year. Senators voted unanimously yes to reinstate her as senator of EHPCPSW. 

Even though the election was over, and candidates had been sworn in, an additional petition received on April 21 regarding the presidential election was presented to senators by Cronin. A decision regarding the petition was made Thursday, however, according to court rules, Cronin must read each petition to the Senate. 

In the petition, Akwanamnye accused Jones of “slander, racism and aggressive advertising” during the election and recommended that he be removed from the ballot and disqualified from the race. 

The petition stated that Jones’ accusations that Akwanamyne stole his posters was slanderous and “damaging to Isioma’s reputation,” that he was putting campaign posters in places not designated for advertisements, and that he was violating CSC Constitutional Court rule 8-1002 by claiming that “candidate Isioma does not belong on student government because of her citizenship status, which is not American” and “candidate Isioma does not know the American government settlement values.” 

Because the election was the next day, the Student Senate Constitutional court dismissed the petition permanently Thursday, citing a lack of witness accounts, evidence backing Akwanamyne’s accusations and appropriate time to investigate the accusations.