Tanasia Morton and Joshua Starr were elected as Student Government President and Vice President, respectively, for the 2016-17 academic year, taking 68 percent of the total votes.
After hearing the results of the election, Morton said she is excited and grateful about her win.
“[I am] ready to make very positive changes on campus and do everything that I promised I said I was going to do,” Morton said.
Starr said after he and Morton institute the changes they promised in their candidacy, they will focus on getting more students engaged in Student Government.
“We had a lot of plans coming into this election and now that we’ve won, we can start working on them to the best of our ability,” Starr said.
Starr said students should watch for changes on campus during the next academic year. In particular, he said there will be changes to the Health Center and the printing processes on campus.
“[Students] can come to us anytime – our door will be open,” Starr said.
Morton and Starr ran on a three-pronged platform: printing, student health and meal plan affordability.
Current Student Body President Steven Cole said Morton and Starr have good ideas pertaining to the climate on campus.
“I think it’s something that I’ve been working with administration on and trying to have tangible change and not just conversations,” Cole said. “I think Tanasia and Josh are really going to put a heavy focus on making sure there’s some good change there.”
Senators were also elected into office for the 2016-17 year. B. Preston Johnson, a senior women’s and gender studies student, is one out of 14 senators that were voted in. There are currently 8 open senate seats.
“I figured, well, it might be easier to effect change from quote the inside,” Johnson said. “And so, as a senator, you can write and help pass your own resolutions and help pass the resolutions of other senators.”
The number of votes for this election totals to 2179, with Morton and Starr taking 1485 of them, with 538 votes going to write-in candidates.
