James Coyne was elected president of student senate on Tuesday, following the elections that occurred in Convo on Monday and Tuesday. Coyne, currently the College of Arts and Sciences representative, defeated Sean Honaker, who is the current Activities Budgeting Chartering Committee chair. 

“I am honored and humbled by the trust placed in me by the student body” Coyne said in an email. “I look forward to working with incoming President Campo and the administration to help make Ashland a better institution. It is clear from the election that students want bold action to preserve the academic integrity of this institution. Additionally, it is evident that they demand fair, common sense policies, such as Medical Amnesty or 24 hour visitation policy, be enacted at this University. As President I plan to continue to push for these measures and others that the students care about.”

Honaker was displeased with the campaign process, but does not believe the election was illegitimate.

“I believe that the election process this year was very dysfunctional and the campaign rules and guidelines were in horrendous condition,” Honaker said. That being said, I think that it is something that the Internal Affairs Committee of the senate will need to address in the very near future. I don’t believe the issues that we had, though, affected the outcome. I think that James will do a fine job as president, and I will be running for a position in the fall.”

There were two other contested elections. Josh Frey defeated Danielle Wright for the Internal Affairs position, and Kelly Ranttila defeated A.J. Thomas for the Student Affairs position.

Senate members will be sworn in at their meeting next Tuesday in the conference rooms on the second floor of the student center. All meetings are open to the public.