The highly anticipated results of the Student Government elections were announced in Talley Student Union on Tuesday evening. The student body president and vice president for the next year will be determined on Thursday in a runoff election between presidential candidates Jackie Gonzalez, a junior studying political science, and Brad Barbee, a junior studying statistics, and their vice presidential running mates Mia Connell, a sophomore studying sociology, and Jack Pashby, a senior studying nuclear engineering.
Gonzalez and Connell received 28.6 percent of the vote while Barbee and Pashby received 28.48 percent, according to the board of elections.
In addition to the president and vice president, other student body officer positions such as the student body chief justice, treasurer and Student Senate president were also determined for 2017. Jess Hansen, a senior studying aerospace engineering, won the position for student chief justice with 64.74 percent, John Taylor Willis, a junior studying management, won treasurer with 55.85 percent and Mitchell Moravec, a senior studying psychology, narrowly won student student Senate president with 50.72 percent.
Four president and vice president tickets were listed on Tuesday’s ballot: Jackie Gonzalez and Mia Connell, Meredith Biechele and Alexander Mitchell, Alberto Quiroga and Jayna Lennon, and Brad Barbee and Jack Pashby.
Barbee and Pashby centered their campaign on Student Government engagement, affordability and student life. With a slogan of “We’ll actually do stuff,” Barbee and Pashby felt that their message resonated with students.
“We went out talked to students and found out what their issues were, and how we can fix them,” Barbee said. “I’m not sure what the numbers will be when they come out, but whatever they are, I feel like a lot of students are behind us.”
Gonzalez and Connell’s campaign was focused on convenience and sustainability campus concerns, communication within Student Government, and big picture issues such as sexual assault, diversity and education.
“People said, we read your platform, we loved this part of it,” Connell said.* “A lot of students also said, ‘Hey, we believe in what you’re trying to accomplish, and this is something I’d like to see, can you do that for us?’ That’s something we took in, definitely.”
This is Moravec’s second year campaigning for a student body officer position, and he credits his previous experience with helping him form this year’s campaign. Moravec hopes to have a smooth transition from this session to the next, and to communicate the Senate’s concerns effectively and impartially.
“I’m looking at this role as empowering the senators and making sure they feel confident to take student concerns to the administration,” Moravec said. “It’s all about that initial relationship building and community building — making sure the new senators and the senators that are rejoining the Senate again do feel connected and do feel like they have the resources.”
Student Body Treasurer-elect John Taylor Willis also mentioned how campaigning for a job that many consider to be only facilitative requires connecting to students and using the job to focus on their needs. Willis proposed a student fee town hall during his campaign to make student finances more accessible.
“I want to focus on student fees and making sure students understand the fees that they’re paying and what the end results are,” Willis said. “I think the student fees review process isn’t the most transparent.”
Representatives within Student Senate were also chosen from each college, including the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences,the Poole College of Management, the College of Natural resources, the College of Sciences and the College of Textiles.
Emily Lambeth, a junior studying biomedical engineering, was chosen to be IRC president, and the next UAB president is Kam Risku, a junior studying political science. The male and female athlete of the year were also chosen, going to swimmer and diver Ryan Held, a junior studying fisheries and wildlife science, and basketball player Miah Spencer, a senior studying communication, respectively.
The decisions made today by the student body were met with enthusiasm at the reveal. While senators and most officers prepare for a year in their position, both president and vice president teams prepare to reach out to even more students in the following days in preparation for the runoff election.
“We got here because what we did worked,” Gonzalez said.** “We know that we’re not going to continue at the same level, though, we’re probably going to ramp it up a hundred thousand percent.”
Runoff voting will occur Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and students can vote at getinvolved.ncsu.edu.
*Editor’s Note: This quote was originally wrongly attributed to Jackie Gonzalez.
**Editor’s Note: This quote was originally wrongly attributed to Mia Connell.
Student Government presidential runoff candidates Brad Barbee and Jackie Gonzalez stand next to their respective running mates, Jack Pashby and Mia Connell, as the rules of the runoff election are discussed with them at the 2017 election results announcement in Talley Student Union on Tuesday. Neither candidate received enough votes to win the election, so a runoff vote will be held between Gonzlez and Barbee, and the winner of that race will be announced Thursday.
