PSSS Speaker Election Raises Eligibility Concerns

Kay Bailey

She/Her

Editor-in-Chief

12/4/24

In their last meeting before finals week and the forthcoming winter break, the Plymouth State Student Senate wished their current Senate Speaker Will Loughlin goodbye. In the wake of his exit, the remaining group were tasked with a daunting task: appointing a new speaker. In the weeks leading up to this scheduled election, no one had stepped forward with intent to run.

Monday night, however, found two candidates ready to throw their hat in the ring: Student Body Vice President Taylor Smith and Class of 2025 President Olivia Griffin. According to PSSS’s bylaws, neither candidate is technically eligible to serve. Section 3.A.1 notes that a speaker must hold 2 years of experience within PSSS, preferably with a year as an officer on the executive board under their belt. Neither Smith nor Griffin meets the requirement.

As the election for a new speaker began, reporters were asked once again to leave the room. Despite The Clock’s consistent iteration that a closed session for these types of elections is not only unnecessary, but a violation of RSA 91-A, Loughlin looked favorable on a closed session. Parliamentarian Millie Cejka motioned in favor with Class of 2026 President Hannah Lowell seconding.

The final vote came to 9 votes for Smith and 1 vote, cast by Lowell, for Griffin, according to USSB Trustee Ethan Dupuis. Though Smith won the election, PSSS’s bylaws bar him from assuming the responsibilities, at least for now. He will only be able to act as speaker with 3/4 vote to waive the requirement, Loughlin told The Clock. 

PSSS also approved their first big ticket CEA (conferences, events, and activities) request of the semester. Model United Nations requested $10,565 to attend an international conference in Valletta, Malta. The trip would be a valuable lesson in “world politics and public speaking, diplomacy skills and debate skills” club President Avery Opland said. “It allows students to learn about international issues on an international level.”

MUN fundraised $1,265 so far, and the requested funds would pay for air travel, hotel rooms, transportation, food, and the conference itself.  During last year’s international conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the club won two awards for their performance, and they hoped to carry over that success even further. According to PSSS Treasurer Walter Farrar, there is $17,536 remaining in the CEA allocation budget for the semester. If PSSS were to fulfill the entire request, there would be about $7,000 remaining to roll over into next semester’s budget. Farrar initially recommended that PSSS fulfill “at least most of” MUN’s request.

A few numbers were tossed around throughout the lengthy discussion on how much of the request to fulfill. Dupuis suggested cutting the $75 per person checked bag fee from the covered expenses and lowering the amount of people that would be fully covered 10 to 8. Throughout the deliberation, with tweaks to the proportion of meals and rooms covered, his recommendation dropped from $7503 to $6818, and then to his final recommendation of $6018.

Cejka encouraged the room “to keep in mind that we are all experiencing budget cuts” when considering the request. Meanwhile, Lowell recommended that PSSS fulfill the request in full, based on the merit of MUN’s last conference performance, though she did not officially propose the full $10, 565 come voting time. Griffin expressed her confusion as to why some representatives were trying to cut the request substantially when they had $17,536 at their disposal.

Eventually, two recommendations were motioned for a vote: Dupuis’s $6,018 and Smith’s $7,500, piggybacking off of an earlier recommendation from Griffin. The larger proposal is traditionally voted on first, and Smith’s recommendation passed 11-1, with Dupuis voting no. The sum was justified as enough to cover costs for 8 people, with MUN potentially making up the difference out of pocket or with their gift fund, which currently holds about $4,500. In contrast to their $6,000 CEA allotment last year, MUN walked away with $1,500 more than they did for last year’s conference, which had a similar price tag.