UPDATE – 7/28/2015 at 6:44 p.m.
Hailey Guerra, sworn in as the new student body president this afternoon, said she thought the now-former President Shomari Gloster was joking about stepping down.
“It was the best decision for me, personally, focusing on my studies,” Gloster said.
Guerra said she feels well equipped to take over because she and Gloster set a strong foundation and she has already been involved in all the initiatives the United Party campaigned on.
“We ran on a platform, and that’s important to us, it’s kind of been our guiding light,” Guerra said.
She continued, “I absolutely want to keep the promises that we made to voters and to the student body and just keep moving forward with…all of our platform initiatives.”
To students who voted for the United Party ticket, Gloster said, “I thank them for their support and I ask that they continue to support Hailey. That’s going to be very important.”
On whether it was difficult for Gloster to step down after the joy of winning the election, he said it would have been difficult if he didn’t have a vice president equipped to take over.
“One thing about servant leadership is the service you provide is always going to be greater than the servant who’s providing it,” Gloster said.
Guerra said things will definitely be different now.
“[sic] Definitely a different tone within the office and just work relationships. There’s also having to pick a VP so there will definitely be changes going on within the office, but we’re going to take it all as it comes.”
Guerra said SG members would be available again after returning from their trip on Aug. 11.
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Shomari Gloster, sworn in as student body president on May 1, sent an email to all students today at 3:24 p.m. announcing he is stepping down from his positions. His brief email said he decided to step down for personal reasons and Hailey Guerra, who was vice president, has already been sworn in.
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