Weber State University’s student senate voted on Josh Hunt and swore him in as the diversity vice president at the senate meeting on Monday. He was ratified by a three-fourths vote from the senators.
Last week, the Diversity Vice President Search Committee nominated Hunt. The senate then waited a week to vote on him.
“We are really excited about Josh,” said Andrew Gardiner, the WSU Student Association president. “Again, I can’t reiterate how much he exemplifies what we are looking for in the candidate. We’re excited to get to work really soon with him and to get him acquainted with the executive council during the break. That’s really important to us — to get more cohesiveness, unity. That way, when spring semester starts, we are ready to roll.”
Hunt was working as the assistant diversity director in the Center for Diversity and Unity and was appointed as the temporary vice president after Mindy Chamberlin stepped down.
“I wanted to give back and get more involved in Weber State, and I looked at the different branches of student government and saw diversity as having a very critical message for this campus,” Hunt said. “So it’s something that has really weighed heavily on me.”
Before the senate voted on Hunt, the senators had the opportunity to ask him questions about his plans and why he wanted to be the vice president. One questions was about what work he had already down to improve the CDU.
Hunt said he and the group he works with have identified 10 areas they want to work on in the CDU next semester. These areas include sexism, ageism and racism. Hunt said he has also been reviewing what the CDU has been doing right over the past semester and what it could be doing better.
“To me, the Diversity Center and Weber State as a whole have a very serious responsibility to make every student on this campus to feel included, accepted, to provide a safe haven for them, so to speak, (and) also to provide literature and resources and outreach for them so they understand what is available to them in their times of need,” Hunt said.
After Hunt was finished answering questions, members of the Diversity Board, who attended the meeting, were able to talk about Hunt and why they thought he should be the new vice president.
“I’m really glad you guys picked Josh as someone you were interested in choosing,” said board member Kelsey Capoferri to the senators. “I’ve seen in this past month how much he has stepped up in taking Mindy’s place as a sort of shadow, and just how he brought us all together. I say that Josh would be an excellent choice because of the fact that he has just shown so much leadership and really has supported all of us.”
Megan Gour was one of three people who applied for the diversity vice president position. She said she believed each one of them would be capable of doing the job.
“Josh is a great guy, Josh is a great candidate,” she said, “and I know that he will do a great job to bring us together, to hold us together.”
