United Students wins Student Senate with 48 percent of the vote
ConnectKU comes in a close second, with only 200 fewer votes
Adam McGonigle and Michael Gillaspie received 2,005 votes, securing the positions of president and vice president of Student Senate.
By Brenna Hawley (Contact)
Friday, April 11th, 2008
Shouts of joy filled The Yacht Club when members of United Students heard their coalition won the presidency of Student Senate for next year.
Photo by Jon Goering
Adam McGonigle and Michael Gillaspie of United Students celebrate after being elected president and vice-president of Student Senate. This is the second year United Students has won the presidency.
Click to download a PDF of the preliminary Student Senate election results.
Students voted 48 percent in favor of Adam McGonigle, Wichita sophomore, for president and Michael Gillaspie, Ashland junior, for vice president. The candidates received 2,005 votes, which was 200 more than ConnectKU’s candidates received. Students of Liberty came in third with 305 votes.
McGonigle, who served as Student Executive Committee Chair this year, said the experience he received from the job prepared him for the presidency.
“This means good things for Student Senate,” McGonigle said. “We will work to get things done for the University.”
McGonigle said his mentor was current student body president Hannah Love.
Love, Dodge City senior, said she would work to make McGonigle’s transition into office a smooth one. She said that even though McGonigle was going to be a junior, his age would not affect his ability to be an effective president.
“He is mature enough and has the skills he needs,” Love said.
Gillaspie said it was exciting to win after talking all day to students passing by about platforms he wants to accomplish.
“I’ve been spending countless hours on campus,” Gillaspie said. “I know all about lack of sleep.”
Gillaspie’s role as vice president includes chairing Senate meetings, which means keeping order and preventing meetings from getting out of hand. He said he has been in leadership roles before and was prepared.
United Students won all 14 freshman-sophomore CLAS senate seats, which McGonigle said showed how good a coalition it was all around.
Libby Johnson, Lawrence freshman, won one of those seats and said that winning all 14 was amazing.
“It shows how hard we worked,” Johnson said.
United Students won 30 Student Senate seats in addition to the presidency, ConnectKU won 26 seats, and an independent won one. Gillaspie said this will mean a split Senate, but he was ready to take on controversy.
McGonigle said he was going to visit ConnectKU members to shake their hands and talk about how to work together in the upcoming year.
— Edited by Jared Duncan
Discussion
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Congrats guys, you won with 2,005 votes on a campus with more than 30,000 students, and no doubt you will now pretend to speak for them all.
I'm so glad to be through with KU after this year. You can bet that this university won't receive a dime of my money after taking so much from me already through these ridiculous student fees that pay for buildings that those of us who are graduating will never use, along with machines for the student senate that simply don't work.
So congratulations United Students. You won an election with so little of the electorate that it would make Castro blush.
I believe Woody Allen is credited with saying: "80 percent of success is showing up."
So, prezandrew, you see, it's all about showing up. Even though the winners look like a bunch of greek snob arseholes, they showed up. Now they get to raise everyone's fees and spend the money on projects for themselves and their greek snob arsehole friends. It's kind of like the real world, just a bit, don'tyathink?
Crediting United Students with raising student fees is hogwash. The passing referendum to increase bus fees does not relate to a large majority of Greeks. We do not ride buses, so why would we vote to spend $40 that we will never use.
Bob, you are right it is about showing up. So for those who did not vote, your discontent is irrelevant.
Any political theorist worth anything will tell you that A) calling something a democracy doesn't make it so and B) NOT voting is just as strong of a political statement as voting.
Instead of saying things like "if you don't vote, you don't matter," maybe Senate should see why turnout is so low. If students are apathetic enough not to vote, that seems to me like it's a Senate problem, not a voter problem.
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