Jillian Kranz, the Student Association Rules and Judiciary Committee chair, became the new SA vice president at the beginning of this semester.
“It was a seamless transition,” SA President Tucker Sholtes said. “As soon as the semester started, Jillian hit the ground running with it.”
Former SA Vice President Neely Laufer, unexpectedly did not return to Oswego State this semester due to personal reasons, leaving her position open this semester. Now that Kranz has taken the position, Laufer seems to offer nothing but her support.
“Jill was always very involved in SA, and I think she makes a great new vice president,” Laufer said.
According to the SA Constitution, the chair of the Rules and Judiciary Committee, otherwise known as the pro tempore, is responsible for taking the place of the vice president when the vice president is unable to run the senate meetings. Last semester, Kranz was the pro tempore and therefore was the next in line to step up to the vice president position.
“It worked out perfectly because Jillian had already run a senate meeting last semester when Neely had something to attend to at home,” Sholtes said.
Not knowing she was going to accept the job or not, Kranz reached out to Sholtes once, she found out the position was available. Kranz said the vacant position came as a surprise but after having a conversation with Sholtes, Kranz realized that she was very interested in taking the position.
“I definitely thought I was most qualified for the job just because of the time I had in senate and the many roles I have taken on since I got here,” Kranz said. “So I was hoping that I can continue to grow and learn to each new role I take on. I took the leap and I just took the job.”
During the same day, which was the first day of classes, Kranz was sworn into the vice presidency on the SA Constitution.
According to Kranz, Laufer did everything she could to help her start the vice presidency where she left off and Laufer gave her everything so she knew exactly how to take on the position.
“I really worked [with Neely], bringing in speakers to senate so that the senators know what is going on on-campus and can spread that to their constituents and to their friends so they know all the cool things we have going on,” Kranz said.
With her new positions, Kranz looks forward to making some changes like the way the senate is run and the amount of time it takes to get the clubs and organizations the money they need. Originally, that process was two to three weeks but she really wants to cut it down to a one to two week turn around.
“I hope that everyone will understand that it was a quite a quick turnaround to take this position on and I am doing the best I can all the time and I am learning constantly,” Kranz said. “I have great time management skills and I hope to make the biggest difference that I can while I am here.”
Sholtes looks forward to this new semester in SA and has great confidence in the change Kranz will bring to the senate.
“Hopefully this will be an opportunity for [Kranz] to be more engaged within the position and there is always room for improvement so it would be great to see more engagement between the vice president and the senate, aside from the senate meetings,” Sholtes said.“I think it proposes a lot of opportunities to moving some agenda items into the senator’s hands rather than the director working on different infinitives. There has already been some great things that they have begun to work on and seeing what steps can we take to make it a more unified group. I think we are going to have a great semester.”
