Following last year’s trend, student body officer elections included student involvement, with multiple candidates running for each position and a large crowd showing up for the announcement.
Results were announced Wednesday in the Student Center Atrium. A total of 1,694 students voted for officer positions, which Included Secretary of Finance, Secretary of the Assembly, Speaker of the Assembly and Student Body President.
It was a relatively close race for sophomore Jenna Dellaria, who defeated current Speaker, junior Charlie Cohen, with 56.5 percent of the vote.
“Well, I’m sure you can see on my face, I’m a little, wow, I was shocked,” Dellaria said right after the announcement. “[I was] just excited and nervous all day … All of the candidates were wonderful. I’m proud of every single one of them.”
Dellaria said she has a lot to accomplish next year.
Sophomore Dave Jensen held a larger lead over fellow sophomore Gerald Regep, with 68.4 percent of the vote for Speaker of the Assembly.
“I hope to focus on overall campus involvement. Student Senate is a strong organization on this campus, but there is always room to grow and improve,” Jensen said. “All of the clubs and organizations on this campus put together outstanding activities for students to attend. Increasing attendance of these events by members of other organizations is one of my goals.”
Sophomore Kelsey Vogt won against junior Ile Ruiz, who is currently spending her semester studying in Washington, D.C., with 57.4 percent of the vote for Secretary of Finance.
“I am very surprised and honored that the students of Bradley have chosen me for this position,” Vogt said. “I [wasn’t] expecting to win, so hearing my name get called was uplifting to say the least.”
The Secretary of the Assembly position was a relatively close run, with Kaitlyn Markey leading at 41.3 percent, sophomore Anitza Martins at 30 percent and freshman Christopher Chaidez disqualified from the runoff race with 28 percent.
Because all candidates did not receive a majority vote in the first election, Martins and Markey will run against each other again in a runoff election set for April 18-19.
“At this point, I feel that the runoff could go either way,” Markey, a freshman, said. “I feel that Anitza and I are both qualified for this position, and it is mostly up to the Student Body and who they want to be Secretary.”
There was a relatively equal mix of candidates chosen from both tickets, “Build Bravely” and “Braver United.” Candidates on all sides said they were looking forward to working together, and there would be no hard feelings resulting from running against each other’s tickets.
“I am more than happy to give them a position for whichever [cabinet] position they qualify for,” Dellaria said “So, I don’t think it would be awkward at all, at least hopefully not for them, and for me, I just want them to stay involved. And they also have a lot of great ideas for next year, so I’d like to keep them [involved in Student Senate].”
Students were able to vote for the Smoke-Free Campus Referendum, which passed 1,249 against 346.
There were also many write-ins for the various Student Body Officer positions. However, there were only several valid write-ins that were current students. The majority of the write-ins included the likes of Bernie Sanders, Lydia Moss Bradley and KaBoom!. However, these selections were disqualified because they are not current students.
