The Students First party emerged victorious this weekend,
reaffirming its control over the Michigan Student Assembly by
dominating an election in which fewer students voted than in past
years.
Jason Mironov and Jenny Nathan from Students First will take
over as president and vice president of MSA, and the party also won
the majority of MSA seats and the LSA Student Government.
Voters also approved a ballot initiative to fund the William
Monroe Trotter House by raising student fees by $1. LSA students
also voted against new voting procedures for electing the president
and vice president of LSA-SG.
The question on the LSA-SG ballot, if approved, would have
changed procedures so that only voting members of LSA-SG would
elect the president and vice president. Currently, the president
and vice president are on a single ticket and are elected by LSA
students.
“When the results came in, I was ecstatic,” Mironov
said. “I look forward to serving the student body in the
upcoming year, whether it’s expanding student services or
offering a forum for students to come and discuss their issues,
whatever they happen to be.”
Mironov also said he was thankful to the campaign staff and
student voters. “Now it’s my turn to make sure that the
job of the Michigan Student Assembly is carried out, and that the
quality of student life at the University improves throughout the
tenure of my term.”
Only 5,139 students voted in this year’s elections,
compared to about 8,500 students in last year’s winter
elections. About 37,000 students attend the University.
Mironov and Nathan captured 2,261 ballots, almost twice as many
as the runners-up, independent presidential and vice presidential
candidates Tim Moore and Anita Leung, who received 1,201 votes. The
Defend Affirmative Action Party and the Other Political Party
executive candidates received less than 500 votes each.
Students First clinched 18 out of 24 available MSA seats in this
winter’s election, including all nine seats up for grabs in
the LSA, while DAAP and the independent candidates each received
two seats.
But perhaps this election’s biggest surprise came from the
OPP, which clinched one seat in the Division of Kinesiology and
College of Engineering, despite a platform that included flattening
the wave field on North Campus.
Last year Students First received 12 seats, followed by the
University Party with 11 seats and DAAP with one seat.
The newly-elected MSA members will join the assembly for their
first meeting tomorrow.
Students First also dominated the LSA-SG elections, winning 10
out of the 11 positions up for election — including the
presidential and vice-presidential seats. LSA-SG President Lauren
May, a sophomore, and Vice President Ryan Ford, a junior, are
enthusiastic about this year’s projects and working with the
nine new representatives.
“The thing that’s most important for this year is to
get the old representatives acquainted with the new representatives
and set the agenda for next year,” Ford said.
The Students First victory is due to the party’s interest
in representing a wide range of students, said newly-elected LSA-SG
representative Meta Brown, a freshman who ran with the party.
“We’re working for each and every student at the
University,” Brown said. “We’re working for all
types of groups at the University, not just the
majority.”
The new LSA-SG representatives have pledged to work on a number
of projects that they began last year.
“A lot of the projects that Lauren and I ran on are
projects that have already been started that we just have to
continue,” Ford said.
Establishing an International Relations minor and planning
activities for homecoming in the fall are some of the projects that
LSA-SG will be continuing. New undertakings include expanding
Entree Plus to all academic buildings and to some off-campus
businesses, as well as improving the academic advising system.
“We want to create a better advising system,” Brown
said. “We want to make advisors more accessible, especially
for first-year students.”
The eight other representatives that were elected to LSA-SG
included: freshmen Brittany Jackson, Reggie Gates, Missy Siegal,
Andrew Yahkind, Matthew Megally, David Arnstein and sophomore Basil
Basha, all members of Students First. Freshman Jeffrey Monahan also
won a seat as the only independent candidate.
And the results are in …
• Students First presidential and vice presidential
candidates Jason Mironov and Jenny Nathan receive 2,261 votes
• Independent presidential and vice-presidential candidates
Tim Moore and Anita Leung garner 1,201 votes
• Students First claims 18 of 24 available MSA seats,
including all nine LSA spots
• Defend Affirmative Action Party, independents and the
Other Political Party manage to grab two seats each