Hays Kassen, junior in accounting, will be the next SGA vice president.
Cheers erupted and echoed off the surrounding Quad dorms when Kassen’s name was announced by the members of the elections council.
“I’m just super thankful,” he said. “I’m thankful to the Lord above; thankful to my friends and family.”
Kassen said he was especially thankful to his close friends and campaign staff.
“I couldn’t have done it without my fraternity brothers, but most of all my girlfriend and my campaign managers” he said.
Kassen’s parents were part of the crowd of hundreds who were waiting on the slick pavers outside Katharine Cooper Cater Hall.
Looking ahead to his time as the President of the Student Senate, Kassen said he wants to encourage senators to work on issues they care about.
“I think the biggest job of [vice president] is putting [senators] on committees and having them work on legislation they’re really interested in,” he said. “I think if they’re doing that, they’ll work a lot harder.”
In an interview before the election, Kassen said he is eager to get to work with the newly elected senators before summer break.
“As soon as I get in office, I just want to have that mentality of, ‘We only have six weeks left, so we need to do everything we can from the start,’” he said.
The two other vice presidential candidates, Annie Ozment and Xavier Kimbrell, thanked their supporters and said they were humbled by the process.
“I had literally the best group of people supporting me, behind me this whole time,” said Ozment, junior in psychology.
Kimbrell, junior in biochemistry, said he hopes to continue working with SGA despite the loss on election night.
“I hope this isn’t the end of the story for me, and I get another opportunity to serve because I really am passionate about it,” he said. “This is just a roadblock, but it’s an easy one to get over.”
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