The Council of Graduate Students is under new leadership.

COGS officials elected Sam Howerton the council’s new president Wednesday night. The position was made available by current President Vikram Ghorpade, who’s stepping down because he’s slated to graduate in December.

Howerton will start his official term in January, leaving a vacancy in his current position - vice president for graduate welfare.

Ghorpade, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student, will be moving on to a career at a management consulting firm.

“Sam is a fantastic person,” he said. “He is highly motivated and a dedicated worker. He is definitely the right person for the job.”

Ghorpade looks back on his tenure as president with fondness. But he’s ready to move on.

“I saw a lot of issues all the way through from the planning stages to when they were implemented,” he said. “It is a great sense of accomplishment.”

Howerton concedes the presidency was not necessarily a position he was seeking, but he accepted the offer wholeheartedly.

“I didn’t come to graduate school thinking I was going to be president of COGS,” he said.

Howerton said he has plans for COGS that he thinks are critical issues for the future.

“Overall I think I would like to see the voice of COGS increased,” Howerton said. “We have a lot of influence with the dean and the president of the university but I would like to see that trickle down to the departmental level.”

Howerton was nominated for the position by Ghorpade. He was the only candidate, but still had to go through the entire process.

COGS Vice President for Internal Affairs Marco Meniketti said Howerton easily earned council support. Of 41 ballots turned in, 38 were in favor of Howerton and the other three were left blank.

He said he thinks having one candidate results from two factors.

“First I think people wanted Sam as the president so they didn’t offer any other nominations,” he said. “It is a huge commitment that maybe no one else was ready for.”