By Jessica Stamp
Niko Mastorides and Maguire Franko were announced to serve as president and executive vice president April 8. The newly elected leaders will be sworn in at 4 p.m. April 25 in the Kilcawley Center’s Chestnut Room.
Mastorides, a senior political science and communications major, described seeing the results as “surreal.”
“I don’t think anyone really knew who was going to win until that email was sent out,” Mastorides said.
Franko, a junior finance major, is eager to serve students alongside Mastorides in their new roles.
“[The thing] I’m most looking forward to is being able to serve. Niko and I have both served in different ways on campus, but I think this is probably the focal point of service to the students,” Franko said. “Niko and I are really excited to use this platform to be able to create change on campus.”
Franko said the voter turnout and engagement was the highest in nine years.
Three pairs of candidates ran in the SGA 2022-23 election and displayed signs asking students to vote for them throughout Youngstown State University’s campus.
If any YSU community member believed one of the candidates violated a policy in the election, they could’ve filed a grievance form within 18 hours after the elections closed.
Samantha Shaffer, coordinator of community standards and student conduct, receives and looks over any grievances submitted.
“Anybody can submit them,” Shaffer said. “They’re submitted through an online form on the SGA website. They come to my office and get reviewed by the Elections Board to see if they want to hear it.”
She also oversees the SGA Elections Board as its adviser. The election board consists of five YSU student members who already take part in the Student Conduct Board or the Academic Integrity Oversight Board.
Shaffer raises student awareness of the Code of Conduct by working with the Elections Board.
Some SGA policies a candidate can potentially violate is using campus organizations to campaign on their behalf or putting up posters larger than the standard size 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of paper. “Mudslinging” — attacking candidates personally — is another common election violation.
Grievances become public information when they go through a hearing process. SGA will post the information about the grievance but not the private information of the individual on its website. From there, the Elections Board decides whether or not the person charged with a potential violation was an actual SGA rule violation.
“It’s not made public because when anybody calls and has a concern, we address that concern but it doesn’t necessarily mean that … warrants going further,” Shaffer said. “If it goes to a hearing process on the information minus the privacy information … it will be posted on the YSU SGA website.”
If a candidate has a grievance filed against them and it does not go through a hearing process, then there is no impact on them. When there is a violation of SGA rules, the Elections Board can issue sanctions which can include prohibiting the individual from running for office or not being a member of SGA for that year.
Shaffer said grievances do not usually happen because students who want to run in SGA have to attend a meeting discussing the Student Code of Conduct.
