Allison “McKay” Ellis resigned from her position as vice president of Student Government in order to accept an internship with the State Department in Geneva, Switzerland.
On Aug. 28, 2012, SG President Matt Rutkovitz held an Emergency Senate meeting to reorganize the Executive Cabinet where former Speaker of the Assembly Kristen Anderson was chosen to replace Ellis as vice president.
“It was a really hard decision, because Student government had been something I worked for for so long,” Ellis admitted. “I actually flew to Baltimore to see [Matt] in person. But Kristen Anderson is awesome and I think she is going to do a really good job.”
Ellis originally planned to take the overseas internship during the summer of 2012, but the funding was cancelled, and consequently the internship too. She was then offered the same internship for the fall of 2012 and decided the opportunity was too good to pass.
“It’s a Department of State internship in Geneva and I’ll be working in the political sector,” Ellis said. “I’ll be going to human rights conventions and talking to people and working with the UN.”
“ I’m really excited but kind of sad at the same time,” Anderson revealed. “ I absolutely love McKay and her and I both work in the Office of Student Leadership together so we’ve gotten really close over the years. But I’m very honored that her and Matt picked me to be the VP position because I think that we have a lot of good ideas.”
“We’re gonna miss McKay, she’s a great student leader but Kristen is definitely doing a wonderful job getting acclimated well, good with others and really good at delegating. She’s already doing a great job,” Rutkovitz said.
With Ellis’s resignation and Anderson’s new appointment, the Senate has appointed Dylan Sellberg, former Director of Programming, as the new Speaker of the Assembly and Trevor Joenson as the Director of Programming.
Although Ellis’ time in the office was brief, her journey to the position had more obstacles than expected.
On March 30th, the Student Government Presidency and Vice Presidency candidates Rutkovitz and Ellis met with the Judicial Advisory Board to appeal the decisions made in Thursday’s meeting. In the meeting on Thursday, Rutkovitz and Ellis were disqualified from the race for violations of the Election Guidelines in the Student Government bylaws which states ‘Candidates must not act in such a manner that it places a voter under duress with regard to their vote’ and ‘Candidates should campaign positively. Candidates are representing The University of Tampa.’”
Ellis later defended herself and Rutkovitz in a Minaret article asserting, “I think that there is a lot of speculation and there is a lot of accusation towards our campaign and if you don’t know the truth, then there is no reason to talk about it. It was something that both of us felt that our names got tarnished and that in no way reflects who we are or what our campaign and our strategies and goals are. “
Despite the sudden change in command, Anderson is optimistic about the success of Student Government this year.
“We are very excited to move forward and do a lot of great things. Three of the main things that we want to focus on again that go along with Matt and McKay’s campaign are recycling, library hours and our relationship with Reslife, so we definitely want to work on those things,” Anderson said, “We have a great team established. We’re so excited about this year. I feel like every time we get together without our cabinet members, all the ideas get flowing and everyone’s on board.”
Jessica Keesee can be reached at jessica.keesee@theminaretonline.com
Mia Glatter can be reached at mia.glatter@theminaretonline.com
Additional reporting by Yasaman Sherbaf and Chelsea Daubar