Journalism doctoral student Keegan Clements-Housser will serve as the University of Maryland GSG’s 2025-26 president, the organization announced on Friday.
Clements-Housser, the Graduate Student Government’s operations director, said he ran for president to bring more experience to the position and be able to continue the work he is already doing.
Clements-Housser said his experience on GSG makes him qualified to be president. Clements-Housser added that he has served on nearly every committee in the organization, he said.
“I have seen how GSG works at every level,” Clements-Housser said. “If there’s a way I could have interacted with GSG at this point, I have, so I have a pretty good understanding of how the organization works.”
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Clements-Housser said as president, he hopes to increase public awareness of GSG, which has been an uphill battle since the COVID-19 pandemic.
GSG must be more “transparent and visible” in how it interacts with the campus community so more people know who its members are and what they’re doing, he said.
“Not because we want the glory, but because that’s how we get more people to participate in student government and help us do better,” Clements-Housser said.
Clements-Housser added that he is relieved that he won the election and happy to be working with the two vice presidents elected for the next academic year.
The assembly elected Ivy Lyons to serve as the next legislative affairs vice president, and Sydney Overton as the next financial affairs and student fee matters vice president.
Lyons, a journalism doctoral student, said they ran for the position to help with the organization and structure of the body.
“I wanted to make sure that I was creating space for new voices and helping to kind of empower the assembly that I had been a part of,” Lyons, a former representative and University Senate graduate senator, said.
Lyons said they want to help the next executive board empower GSG to do strong, independent work like that of graduate governments at similar universities across the country.
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“I’m always concerned with doing the ethical thing and the best thing for the group that I decide to lead, no matter what that leadership looks like,” Lyons said.
Overton, an electrical engineering doctoral student, said she was considering nominating herself when the nominations first came out, and that encouragement from her peers was her final push to go for the position.
Overton has been on GSG’s Community Development Committee since 2022 and served on the organization’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee for the last year, which she said helped her gain familiarity with the responsibilities of her new role.
Overton said she hopes to advocate for graduate students’ concerns about student fees and help them worry less about how to make ends meet.
“It’s going to be really important to advocate for graduate students, as far as their cost of living, and making sure that they’re able to do what they need to do, which is focused on being students, focus on being researchers and teachers,” Overton said.
