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GREEN SWEEPS ASUW ELECTIONS
Source: The Daily
Author: Garrett Troy
Date: May 11, 2007
An intimate crowd, primarily in green “Our Campus” T-shirts, eagerly awaited in the HUB second floor lounge as the ASUW election results were announced just above on the third floor balcony.
Soon the lounge erupted in cheers and applause, as junior Tyler Dockins was declared next year’s ASUW president. Dockins received 63 percent of the vote, while his opponent, junior Chris Paredes, received 25 percent.
Current ASUW President Cullen White said he is confident in Dockins’ abilities.
“Tyler will grow in all the ways I have grown,” he said. “He will be a great leader.”
Uncontested candidate and junior Sam E Al-Khoury won his bid for vice president with 83 percent of the vote.
“I’m glad it is over,” he said. “I was going full throttle for the last week. It will [be] nice to get back to normal and start to focus on next year.”
The hotly contested race for director of faculty, administration and academics between Jenny Hahn, Elizabeth Campbell and David Kim went into three rounds of run-offs. In the first round, Hahn received 41 percent of the vote, Campbell received 18 percent and Kim received 27 percent. After manually counting the votes two additional times, the final results indicated Kim with 28 percent of the vote and Hahn with 42 percent.
Hahn broke into tears upon hearing the results and was embraced by fellow members of the “Our Campus” ticket and her supporters.
“I was really emotionally invested in this campaign,” Hahn said. “I was so nervous.”
The uncontested race for director of programming went to the “Our Campus” candidate Adriana Hilliard, as did the “Our Campus” candidates for other uncontested races. Director of organizational relations went to Rachel Hollcraft, while the director of operations will be Rob Barnum-Reece. Tyson Johnston will once again take the title of the director of diversity efforts, and the director of community relations will be Anttimo Bennett.
“I was excited for the turnout even in the uncontested races,” said Reece, who received over 1,600 votes. “I was worried it was going to be around 150 people. We can still do better though. “
Write-in candidates Kim Chung and Timothy Mensing showed strong percentages, with 10 and 11 percent respectively, despite not being on the ballot.
The non-binding survey question results regarding the use and possession of marijuana on campus received a total of 1880 votes, winning with 65 percent.
“I hope to take these results to the administration and try to affect policy beginning next year,” said NORML/SSDP President Tim Kelly.
For those who didn’t win, this won’t be their last hoorah with the ASUW.
“Last year I ran, but I kept involved,” Paredes said. “I am going to continue to be involved, just in a different role — this will be a transition.”
Dockins pointed out the achievemnets of this year’s campaigning.
“We had a really good group of people,” he said. “Involvement across campus was even more widespread than in past years. The electorate was less ASUW-centric.”
Indeed, there was a plurality of cross-campus involvement. Fraternities and sororities accounted for 28 percent and residence halls accounted for 26 percent of the votes, while off-campus votes accounted for 43 percent of the ballots.
Not everyone was as optimistic as Dockins about the voter turnout, however.
“Four years ago, there were roughly 8,000 students who voted,” said fourth-year ASUW senate member Andrew Everett. “This year there were less than 2,000 — what apathy.”
Regardless, candidates are looking forward to taking on their new positions.
“Next year’s going to be so much fun,” Hahn said.
Soon the lounge erupted in cheers and applause, as junior Tyler Dockins was declared next year’s ASUW president. Dockins received 63 percent of the vote, while his opponent, junior Chris Paredes, received 25 percent.
Current ASUW President Cullen White said he is confident in Dockins’ abilities.
“Tyler will grow in all the ways I have grown,” he said. “He will be a great leader.”
Uncontested candidate and junior Sam E Al-Khoury won his bid for vice president with 83 percent of the vote.
“I’m glad it is over,” he said. “I was going full throttle for the last week. It will [be] nice to get back to normal and start to focus on next year.”
The hotly contested race for director of faculty, administration and academics between Jenny Hahn, Elizabeth Campbell and David Kim went into three rounds of run-offs. In the first round, Hahn received 41 percent of the vote, Campbell received 18 percent and Kim received 27 percent. After manually counting the votes two additional times, the final results indicated Kim with 28 percent of the vote and Hahn with 42 percent.
Hahn broke into tears upon hearing the results and was embraced by fellow members of the “Our Campus” ticket and her supporters.
“I was really emotionally invested in this campaign,” Hahn said. “I was so nervous.”
The uncontested race for director of programming went to the “Our Campus” candidate Adriana Hilliard, as did the “Our Campus” candidates for other uncontested races. Director of organizational relations went to Rachel Hollcraft, while the director of operations will be Rob Barnum-Reece. Tyson Johnston will once again take the title of the director of diversity efforts, and the director of community relations will be Anttimo Bennett.
“I was excited for the turnout even in the uncontested races,” said Reece, who received over 1,600 votes. “I was worried it was going to be around 150 people. We can still do better though. “
Write-in candidates Kim Chung and Timothy Mensing showed strong percentages, with 10 and 11 percent respectively, despite not being on the ballot.
The non-binding survey question results regarding the use and possession of marijuana on campus received a total of 1880 votes, winning with 65 percent.
“I hope to take these results to the administration and try to affect policy beginning next year,” said NORML/SSDP President Tim Kelly.
For those who didn’t win, this won’t be their last hoorah with the ASUW.
“Last year I ran, but I kept involved,” Paredes said. “I am going to continue to be involved, just in a different role — this will be a transition.”
Dockins pointed out the achievemnets of this year’s campaigning.
“We had a really good group of people,” he said. “Involvement across campus was even more widespread than in past years. The electorate was less ASUW-centric.”
Indeed, there was a plurality of cross-campus involvement. Fraternities and sororities accounted for 28 percent and residence halls accounted for 26 percent of the votes, while off-campus votes accounted for 43 percent of the ballots.
Not everyone was as optimistic as Dockins about the voter turnout, however.
“Four years ago, there were roughly 8,000 students who voted,” said fourth-year ASUW senate member Andrew Everett. “This year there were less than 2,000 — what apathy.”
Regardless, candidates are looking forward to taking on their new positions.
“Next year’s going to be so much fun,” Hahn said.