Since there has been a vacancy in the President’s office, for the past two months, many of the members of the UWC – SG’s top 13 leaders – have stepped up and have been acting since June 2.

At a UWC meeting on June 2, two new members appeared on the roll call, Rakibur Joarder, acting Boca senate speaker, and Vishnu Singh, acting Broward campuses senate speaker.

And until a president and vice president have been elected, the members who are acting will not step back into their elected roles.

Chris Mack, parliamentarian for the Boca senate, explained all of this as “We are following an order of succession due to a vacancy in the president’s office.”

But according to Ancel Pratt, a former student body president, whose administration was heavily involved in writing the constitution, didn’t feel this was the proper interpretation and said, “That was not my intent.”

He went on to point to a case that arose during his term in office. He said the Boca governor’s office became vacant and the senate speaker stepped up. However, the student court later ruled the governor shouldn’t have been removed and so they reinstated her. The senate speaker did not step back down but instead was just removed from office.

But the current situation is slightly different because the current officials haven’t stepped up – they are only acting.

Thomas Morris, senate speaker from Treasure Coast, said the order of succession was never discussed in any meeting; it just came to be on June 2. He was shocked and asked administrators later about it, whom he said, “had no answers.”

Gian Amato, acting as vice president, said the order of succession was discussed that day before the meeting but not during the meeting.

Associate Dean of Student Affairs Lisa Bardill, said it was never discussed with her and she didn’t find out about it until it happened on that day.

Jupiter Senate Speaker Ian Depagnier said that the order of succession “should have happened immediately.”

But according to Amato the reason it wasn’t exercised at the start of the semester was because no one knew the vacancy would last as long as it has.

Here is a list of the current acting UWC officials:

o Kim Nguyen – Acting President – elected Boca governor

o Todd Ericson – Acting Boca governor – elected Boca senate speaker

o Rakibur “Rocky” Joarder – Acting Boca senate speaker – elected Boca senator

o Gian Amato – Acting vice president – elected Broward governor

o Reshma Maharaj – Acting Broward governor – elected Broward senate speaker

o Vishnu Singh – Acting Broward senate speaker – elected Broward senator