Franklin reelected SGA president

On Thursday evening, Gallop Franklin, II became the first FAMU Student Government Association (SGA) president to win reelection since Tallahassee attorney Daryl Parks.

Franklin received 972 votes in the run-off election against challenger Kristopher Gibson’s 865.

The win came despite Franklin’s intense unpopularity with some members of SGA's legislative branch. In November, the Student Senate brought negative press to FAMU by launching a dead-end attempt to remove Franklin. Senators approved impeachment against him by a nine to 16 vote. The impeachment did not go anywhere due to the fact that the Student Supreme Court, which hears impeachment cases, did not have quorum.

Franklin’s tenure as student body president has had its ups and downs. He faced criticism over the selection process for the Homecoming concert promoter (who was later arrested after attempting to storm into 90.5FM’s studios) and the choice of performing artists.

However, Franklin has made progress in his quest to help low-income FAMU students who are struggling with skyrocketing college costs. He received a positive response for his more than $30,000 “student stimulus package” developed to provide students with money for book vouchers, study materials, and graduate school entrance exam fees.

As one of FAMU’s 13 university trustees, Franklin also successfully persuaded his fellow board members to waive the seven percent differential tuition increase for students who qualify for the need-based Florida Public Student Assistance Grant (FPSAG). With the waiver in place, FAMU's FPSAG students won’t have to request to extra grants or loans from the Office of Financial Aid to pay for the differential.

In other election news, Kindall “Sunshine” Johnson was elected Miss FAMU, receiving 1128 votes over Jilyian Kelly.

The Miss FAMU run-off election almost did not happen, as the student electoral commission disqualified all the candidates. However Dean of Students Henry Kirby, acting on the behalf of Vice President for Student Affairs (VPSA) Roland Gaines, overturned the decision after finding the electoral commission violated the election code itself.

Misconduct and rule violations committed by past electoral commissions have led VPSAs to reverse many other disqualification rulings that occurred in previous years.