The Oakland University Student Council has named Adeline Perhogan their president and Annabella Jankowski as their vice president to lead the next year of students.

Perhogan and Jankowski won by a 238-214 margin before any grievance trial results were final, and after the hearing it became 238-209.72, still in favor of Perhogan and Jankowski

Perhogan was the Student Activities Funding Board Chair this year and Jankowski was Student Body Vice President, and they plan to use that to their advantage as president and vice president.

One of their main focuses is the mental health of students. They want to partner up with the Graham Counseling Center to increase the access to mental health resources. 

“Our main initiatives are transparency, campus involvement, health and wellness and emergency support services,” Perhogan said. “The highlights of our initiatives include hosting monthly student concerns forums, having a text remind system, hosting mainstages and tabling, streamlining online learning, partnering with the Rec Center and Graham Health Center to provide resources and events for students to promote healthy living, and to contribute to additional relief funding, such as mitigating the cost of textbooks through Student Congress-funded scholarships.”

They want to also increase additional relief funding on campus. By pushing for mitigating the costs of the textbooks and providing students with scholarships that involve open educational resources to faculty and staff. 

This year’s COVID-19 guidelines have caused a lot of campus life to be virtual, and Perhogan and Jankowski understand this. They want to focus more on initiatives and emphasizing the health of the students.

They also plan to improve the online learning and make sure all students will have access to be the best they can be in their classes. They are working with the e-Learning and Instructional Support (e-LIS) committee.

Their last big platform idea is about transparency between the upper administration and students. Being aware of what is going on in the upper aspects of the university is something they feel students should be aware of.

Grievances

Before the decision to elect Perhogan and Jankowski, there was a meeting discussing the grievances, the official complaints made by the candidates. In the grievances, Perhogan and Jankowski filed three, and Tolbert and Smith filed one.

The grievances started out with the trademark law regarding the Oakland United Student Workers Coalition name, which was originally Oakland University SWC, which was a breach of trademark law.

“Regardless of whether this group is a union, organization or club, using the name without permission is against the rules,” Jankowski said.

The committee reviewing the grievances voted 5-0 to acquit Tolbert. 

The next topic was about the use of a megaphone to promote a campaign from Tolbert, which Tolbert tried to deny. The votes ended up finding Tolbert guilty by a 3-2 vote. The severity of the punishment was determined to be a one on a 1-5 scale, losing Tolbert and Smith 2% of their vote. 

The last grievance from Perhogan and Jankowski was about Tolbert speaking about her campaign at an OUSC meeting, which is against the rules of campaigning. That vote was 4-1 in favor of Tolbert and Smith. No penalty was assigned.  

Tolbert and Smith’s lone grievance they filed for was about an anonymous account harassing them, which they originally thought was Perhogan. The votes acquitted Perhogan on a 4-1 count.

Perhogan and Jankowski have taken on the role of the new President and Vice President and are coming into next year with a plan to benefit the students.