Thursday, April 15, 2010
Erin Brown contributed to the reporting of this story.
Video
KUnited wins Student Senate Elections
KUJH-TV live coverage of the 2010 Student Senate elections.
Photo Gallery
2010 Student Senate election watch parties
Pictures from the watch parties of the KUnited and Envision coalitions. KUnited won the student senate presidency race with 66 percent of the votes and also won 50 senatorial elections, while Envision won nineteen senate seats.
KUnited swept Student Senate elections Thursday after winning the president and vice president positions and 50 senator positions. Nineteen Envision candidates won seats.
KUnited President-elect Michael Wade Smith and Vice President-elect Megan Ritter won 2,034 votes while Envision candidates Ross Ringer and Devon Cantwell won 959 votes.
“It’s amazing that KUnited got over 2,000 votes,” Smith said. “It says a lot about us as a coalition.”
Ritter said they were ecstatic and thought everything they did in the election was well-planned.
“We got the right people,” Ritter said. “The platforms were things students wanted, things they want changed on campus.”
KUnited ran 54 candidates, 50 of whom won seats.
Ringer said the results were disappointing, but the Envision candidates were still going to try to push their platforms during the school year and work to make the changes and improvements they campaigned for.
“We are going to continue to work on our platforms,” Ringer said. “But unfortunately this year we have platform issues that really would have required us to have those top positions because it is going to take a lot of lobbying on the administration to accomplish some of those things.”
Ringer said the coalition could have done some things better, such as making sure they filled all candidate spots, but said he and Cantwell would sit down and make a list of improvements for next year’s coalition.
Cantwell said the outcome was unfortunate and that she was disappointed.
“Basically all we can do is move on,” she said. “Ross and I have two more years.”
Smith said even though KUnited holds an overwhelming majority he wants to work with Ringer and Cantwell to accomplish any of their platforms possible, such as its work-for-credit internship program.
“We are going to make sure that Envision doesn’t feel like the leftovers or the outsiders in senate,” Smith said. “Senate doesn’t have to be a one coalition place.”
Within the next two weeks Smith will select an executive staff of eight senators. All new senators will take office at the final senate meeting on April 28.
— Edited by Kelly Gibson
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Comments
Landslide victory for KUnited
Wow. Big surprise here.
Congrats MWS!
Landslide victory for KUnited
Ritter wasn't a candidate for both parties. You might want to edit that.
Landslide victory for KUnited
These elections are a joke because they are totally controlled by the Greek system. Only the Greeks vote, these elections are far from representative of the whole student body.
I never voted for a United Students/KUnited candidate until this year. I usually just vote for candidates that aren't Greek. And this year it seemed that Envision was overrun by Greek candidates.
Landslide victory for KUnited
But over 80% of KUnited's slate was Greek. Explain your rationale to me?
Landslide victory for KUnited
“It’s amazing that KUnited got over 2,000 votes,”
No it isn't.
“It says a lot about us as a coalition.”
No it doesn't.
Landslide victory for KUnited
Ya know, kujayhawk, for not caring about this election, you sure care a whole lot!
Landslide victory for KUnited
KUnited may not have been that good offensively in terms of putting points on the board. But in terms of their defense, they were spectacular. Only allowing the opposition to score 950 points is incredible.
Landslide victory for KUnited
2034 votes = 8.029% of the Student Body calculated from the KULC spring headcount.
I am pretty sure everyone who has won in the past 4 years has gotten at least 2000 votes. Second runner ups were usually over 1500, and within 95, and 200 votes the past 2 years in addition to fairly significant third parties. I don't have exact numbers, but any of you who have participated in Student Senate elections can see that turnout is down. It is amazing that enough people even voted to certify the election. Maybe its just the DQ of Envision; or maybe its that students care less and less about what Student Senate is doing. This school is growing which means so does your responsibility. I think you are all smart enough to know that growth shouldn't translate into lower turnout. MWS, you have some work to do: rebuild Student Senate's image. It will also make the resumes of us graduated senators look a little better: I've been wondering lately whether I should keep it on there or not.
To the newly elected Student Senators congrats: don't let it get to your head. Please don't take offense when I say that winning a seat is easy and that it says nothing about your competence. Now you have to make a choice. Either make good on everything you spit out during active campaigning, with the high possibility that the student body will remain oblivious to your hard work and effort. OR go back on your word, half-ass your term, and make sure that the student body is 100% oblivious.
Now excuse me for digging up the bitterness inside me, but I must comment on "what this says about our coalition." Coalitions are CRAP, and I hope they go away some day. There are dozens if not hundreds of students across this campus that would make great student body presidents, yet they are nowhere on the ballot. WHY? because they aren't part of one of these silly coalitions Sometimes they are, but they don't have enough friends in their coalition, or perhaps they just haven't been there long enough. United Students as a coalition rewards candidates based on seniority and connections. I am not saying that their candidates are not competent or qualified, just that competence and qualifications do not factor. Sure this may be the best to keep your coalition competitive, but seriously, what good does it do for Student Senate? For students? Here is some ugliness that has kept many bright minds from Student Senate.
Party dissolution burns bridges by Ashlee Kieler
Here's a thought senators (future presidents): spend 2010-11 doing a freaking awesome job. And when it comes time to sign up for the ballot, (don't forget that time! lol envision, sorry.) sign up without a coalition. Run on your own merits. Don't let coalitions hold us back.
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