UNF Senate confirms Student Body Vice President during first Senate meeting of the fall semester

Julia Croston, Reporter

Updated: 8:15 a.m August 30 with the photo of newly confirmed Vice President John Grosso.

Filling the room for the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19, Student Government (SG) met in the Senate chambers Friday afternoon to discuss data security and confirm the new Vice President (VP). 

SG moved quickly to promote John Grosso from Acting Student Body Vice President to Student Body  VP.  The previous VP, Darryl Boyer, resigned weeks prior to the fall semester. 

Over the summer, Grosso was appointed as the Student Government Attorney General. Student Body President Selma Besirevic gave a passionate speech of recommendation endorsing Grosso. 

Grosso then took the floor to give a speech outlining his goals while enthusiastically speaking about SG, student engagement, and UNF. Other student government members noted Grosso’s passion when explaining why he should be Vice President. Some were concerned Grosso’s schedule would be too full to devote his attention to the role of Vice President, but Grosso explained his time management and planning skills prove otherwise. 

Courtesy of Student Government.

After a question regarding his future goals as Vice President, Grosso outlined his focus on rebranding Student Government, using his leadership skills, expanding student engagement, and hiring more officials due to recent understaffing.  Grosso was confirmed by the Senate with a 12-0 vote and was immediately sworn in. 

During the meeting, Student Government also took some time to review FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, as a reminder of their duty to protect student data privacy. Members of UNF’s information technology department (IT) emphasized the importance of never giving personal information to third-party sources. 

UNF uses several third-party resources, such as Canvas and Duo Mobile, but these websites are generally safe due to contracts UNF has made to protect information.

The Florida Sunshine Law was discussed to remind the Student Government of specific types of documents that could be released as public records. For example, Student Government emails can be requested and shared as a form of a public record. 

After a crazy summer for SG, the future may finally be looking bright. 

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