Bruno takes office as FAMU SGA president

Nearly 11 months after Florida A&M University students voted to elect him as their top leader, Justin Bruno has at long last taken office. On Wednesday, he was officially declared the Student Government Association (SGA) president for the 2016-2017 year.

He and his vice-president, Devin Harrison, will serve until May. Harrison will run to succeed Bruno in February.

Back on February 16, 2016 Bruno and Harrison won the positions of SGA president and vice-president by 163 votes. They received 1,366 to the 1,203 votes of the Victor Chrispin/Pernell Mitchell ticket.

Then President Elmira Mangum supported a decision by the Student Supreme Court to order a redo of the entire election in both Tallahassee and Orlando after the losing candidates submitted an appeal that claimed there were problems with the election process at the Orlando law school.

Bruno argued that the new election should be limited to Orlando and took his grievance to the Leon County Circuit Court. The court agreed that the new election should only take place in Orlando where voting-day problems were reported. It issued a temporary injunction against a redoing the election process on the Tallahassee campus. But in August the 1st District Court of Appeal later overturned the decision.

SGA officials failed to schedule a new election during Fall 2016. The FAMUan reported that a memorandum by the student electoral commission dated January 11 said it “was notified Thursday, December 1, 2016 to host the New Election.” But there was no longer a ticket to oppose Bruno and Harrison because, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, Chrispin graduated from FAMU.