Oswego State’s Student Association is about to elect their third vice president in three semesters. This summer former vice president Shelby Gallaro was replaced with an interim vice president, Dalton Flint.
Flint is a sophomore who served last year as a senator, the chair of the election sub-committee and a member of the intercollegiate athletic board. This summer SA President Emily Nassir appointed Flint as interim vice president.
“This is more like a temporary fix,” Nassir said. The senate will vote on Sept. 13 on whether Flint should continue serving as vice president.
Gallaro was elected as vice president in March 2016. She will no longer hold the office due to “personal reasons,” Nassir said.
Gallaro declined to comment.
Typically, when there is a vacancy in an SA office, the senate would elect someone, Nassir said.
According to the SA Constitution, when there is a vacancy in the senate, “it shall immediately be filled by the Executive Authorities of the population affected, through a special election.” The constitution also states that a president pro tempore should serve in the absence of the vice president.
Nassir said Flint’s election was an exceptional case.
“The problem is that the senate is active by academic year, so there was no active senate in the summer,” Nassir said.
Nassir said she chose Flint because he is “very passionate and it’s just very obvious that he’s someone who wants to grow in the organization and do a lot for the organization.”
Flint said he was “very honored and surprised” to be asked to serve as the vice president.
“I felt like as a sophomore, it’s such a big deal,” Flint said.
He felt “duty-bound” to accept when Nassir asked him to consider taking the position.
Currently, many seniors serve in SA positions, which Nassir wanted to change with Flint.
“I really want to start focusing on building the foundation so that it can keep going successfully,” Nassir said. “I thought Dalton [Flint] was the perfect person to start bringing in to see how things work so that there’s someone who knows how this all works for when we’re gone.”
The vice president of SA acts as the president of the senate. They run weekly meetings, recruit and train senators, make an agenda for SA meetings, lead the meetings and assist with projects of the executive branch of SA.
Flint said he does not think the frequent change in SA vice presidents is something to worry about.
“Things happen and it’s a case-by-case basis,” Flint said. “Usually the overall theme is either something gets in the way or people realize it’s not for them and they don’t want to slow the organization down…I don’t think it’s a concern because we’ve been able to move forward so far and everything’s been able to go very smoothly.”
Flint said he hopes to be elected as the next official vice president on Tuesday.
