Oregon State University’s student government Senate confirmed Dawson Yang as the new vice president of the Associated Students of Oregon State University to fill a long-standing gap in student leadership in a March 3 meeting.

Yang, an environmental engineering student, has been leading ASOSU Senate meetings as pro tempore since the start of the academic year. Yang will now serve as ASOSU vice president until June 1, when the term for the newly elected student government begins.

“I’m grateful to President Mogylevsky for trusting me with the responsibility, and I’ll do my best to serve and represent the student body for the remainder of my term,” Yang said in a statement.

ASOSU has been without a vice president since former President Kayla Ramirez was removed from their position last fall. Vice President Masha Mogylevsky was then sworn in to replace Ramirez.

“While I am fully inaugurated as President in the formal and legal sense, I will be using the title of Provisional President until this crisis is resolved,” Mogylevsky said in a statement after Ramirez’s termination. “This also serves as an ongoing reminder that these circumstances are far from normal.”

Mogylevsky did not initially try to fill the vice president position, because, as they said in the same statement, Ramirez was the duly elected President and it was their “foremost duty” to return the Office of President back to Ramirez.

Eventually, Mogylevsky dropped the “provisional” from their title, opening up the possibility of electing a new vice president.

“(Yang) stepped up and supported me in many ways since my unexpected assumption of the presidency, and provided me with much needed emotional support, honest advice, and someone I could put my full trust in,” Mogylevsky said in a statement giving their support to Yang. “I can honestly say that I would not have been able to continue in this position without his partnership.”

Mogylevsky said Yang would be a great vice president due to his “integrity, conviction, and strong care for advocacy and student power.”

According to the Elections Packet for this year’s ASOSU elections — which concluded last Friday at noon — “The ASOSU Vice President helps assist the President in representing ASOSU and leading the executive branch of the student government … The ASOSU Vice President is mainly responsible for chairing Senate Meetings, the Elections Committee, all Mediation committees.”

The confirmation of Yang as vice president left a vacancy in the pro tempore position as well as a Senate seat. However, during the last Senate meeting on Tuesday, Senator Camryn Lau was voted in to fill the vacancy and will retain that role until June 1.