New GPSF president election today — and another resignation

After a series of resignations, the Graduate and Professional Student Federation will elect a new president today in an online election.

Dylan Russell, who currently serves as GPSF’s city and local relations chairperson, is running to replace Brandon Linz, who resigned Nov. 12.

Linz and Secretary Adam Engel, who will leave at the end of the semester, both cited hostility with student government as a reason for leaving.

Cortney Miller, vice president of internal affairs, announced her resignation Tuesday, effective after the GPSF Senate meeting.

“I feel like I can’t do this job in its given state at 100 percent, so I want to give someone else the chance to pick up where I left off and give it 100 percent,” Miller said.

As of Tuesday, there was no replacement for Miller or Engel, but Miller said there will be an application process and a vote by the senate to determine who will take her place.

To address their grievances with student government, interim President Marissa Cann said GPSF sent a letter to Chancellor Carol Folt and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp about the possibility of separating from undergraduate student government.

“The executive board is planning on meeting with Vice Chancellor Crisp within the next week and we’re going to talk about if the administration is willing to do anything about that,” she said. “We are also going to be in a meeting this Thursday with members of student government, Student Congress, Honor Court to discuss a possible constitutional rewrite.”

Cann said she wants to communicate with student government to find a solution.

“We don’t want this to be some sort of hostile ‘us vs. them,’ anything like that.”

Russell said he knows GPSF is going through a rough time.

“Any organization operating without its president, without its vice president of internal affairs and without its secretary, is not a good spot for any organization to be, specifically with all these talks and everything moving forward,” he said.

Despite these challenges, he said he is working with student government to find a solution.

Russell said, “I have also been working with Houston and members of the executive board of student government to talk about these issues and to figure out what’s best for the graduate and professional students.”

While he is running unopposed, 270 votes need to be cast for the election to work. Russell said he wants people to vote so that the organization can continue to work toward its current goals.

“Then we’re done with this process and we can move forward with the leadership that this organization needs at this given time,” he said.

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